PR 4779 
.H9E7 







ii^-.l*-- 






m 



m 



^P 






^v 






■ ■ 









^B 






v7tftfg 



*bv^ 



V *r 



«4°«fc . 







>r?rf % .<? ^ *-.<V a* V VSR* ,o** 





^ *i^t% 







,* ... 






4 ^ ^ • 








4 O . 



» ^ V 







i* o»"«. *** 



G°*.C^>o 



<& V c ° " ° . 



°<* 








• *A * 



? -N* 



*°. 



*<S «> 








V 



o.o- A)' V ♦•#*• ,** '°^^o w o 







r . t • < 






r- *o# 



r. **o« 



Jfruit0 of £cxmt£. 



ESSAYS 

WRITTEN IN THE INTERVALS 
OF BUSINESS. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF " FRIENDS IN COUNCIL," «feC, <fcC. 



J&UL. 



THE FIRST PART. 



THIRD AMERICAN, FROM THE FIFTH ENGLISH EDITION. 



<\V 



' 



NEW-YORK : 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH, 

6 8 3 BROADWAY. 
18 5 3. 



T/?f771 

.N1 1 



z^ 



ADVERTISEMENT TO THE AMERICAN" EDITION. 

This volume, which has already passed to a fifth London Edition, is now 
first issued from the American press ; and it is thought that it cannot fail to 
commend itself to those who desire constant instruction in the duties which 
they owe to themselves and to their fellow-men, and to be governed by the 
highest principles of conduct in the various departments of public and social 
life. While the essays composing the Second Part are addressed mainly to 
business men, and will be found especially valuable to young men, who need 
wise counsels most of all in a country where commercial transactions involve 
great risks and demand the utmost prudence, it is believed that they will be 
found eminently suggestive, and, in their practical character, generally adapted 
to every class of readers. 



JOHN A. GRAY, PRINTER, 
54 Gox-d Street. 



THE FIRST PART. 

Page 

On Practical Wisdom, 7 

Aids to Contentment, 12 

On Self-Discipline, 22 

On our Judgments of other Men, ...... 29 

On the Exercise of Benevolence, . . 39 

Domestic Rule, 46 

Advice, 56 

Secrecy, 63 



THE SECOND PART. 

On the Education of a Man of Business, 71 

On the Transaction of Business, 80 

On the Choice and Management of Agents, . . . .89 

On the Treatment of Applicants, 94 

Interviews, 99 

Of Councils, Commissions, and, in general, of Bodies 

of Men called together to counsel, or to direct, . . .105 

Party Spirit, . . 115 

On Truth, 129 



THE FIRST PART. 



" And he that knows how little certainty there is in humane dis- 
courses, and how we know in part, and prophesie in part, and that 
of eveiy thing whereof we know a little, we are ignorant in much 
more, must either be content with such proportion as the thing will 
bear, or as himself can get, or else he must never seek to alter or t$ 
perswade any man to be of his opinion. For the greatest part of dis* 
courses that are in the whole world, is nothing but a heap of probable 
inducements, plausibilities, and witty entertainments ; and the throng 
of notices is not unlike the accidents of a battel, in which every man 
tells a new tale, something that he saw, mingled with a great many 
things which he saw not ; his eyes and his fear joyning together equally 
in the instructions and the illusion, these make up the stories." — Jejw 
emy Tatlob's Ductor Dubitantium. 



<Dn ^mrfital SBtetom. 



Practical wisdom acts in the mind, as gravi- 
tation does in the material world ; combining, 
keeping things in their places, and maintaining a 
mutual dependence amongst the various parts of 
our system. It is for ever reminding us where we 
are, and what we can do, not in fancy, but in real 
life. It does not permit us to wait for dainty duties, 
pleasant to the imagination ; but insists upon our 
doing those which are before us. It is always 
inclined to make much of what it possesses ; and 
is not given to ponder over those schemes which 
might have been carried on, if what is irrevocable 
had been other than it is. It does not suffer us to 
waste our energies in regret. In journeying with 
it, we go towards the sun, and the shadow of our 
burden falls behind us. 

In bringing any thing to completion, the means 
which it looks for are not the shortest, nor the neat- 



8 ON PRACTICAL WISDOM. 

est, nor the best that can be imagined. They have, 
however, this advantage, that they happen to be 
within reach. 

We are liable to make constant mistakes about 
the nature of practical wisdom, until we come to 
perceive that it consists not in any one predomi- 
nant faculty or disposition, but rather in a certain 
harmony amongst all the faculties and affections of 
the man. "Where this harmony exists, there are 
likely to be well-chosen ends, and means judi- 
ciously adapted. But, as it is, we see numerous 
instances of men who, with great abilities, accom- 
plish nothing, and we are apt to vary our views of 
practical wisdom according to the particular fail- 
ings of these men. Sometimes we think it consists 
in having a definite purpose, and being constant to 
it. But take the case of a deeply selfish person : 
he will be constant enough to his purpose, and it 
will be a definite one. Very likely, too, it may 
not be founded upon unreasonable expectations. 
The object which he has in view may be a small 
thing ; but being as close to his eyes as to his heart, 
there will be times when he can see nothing above 
it, or beyond it, or beside it. And so he may fail 
in practical wisdom. 



ON PRACTICAL WISDOM. 9 

Sometimes it is supposed that practical wisdom 
is not likely to be found amongst imaginative per- 
sons. And this is very true, if you mean by 
" imaginative persons," those who have an excess 
of imagination. For in the mind as in the body, 
general dwarfishness is often accompanied by a 
disproportionate size of some part. The large 
hands and feet of a dwarf seem to have devoured 
his stature. But if you mean that imagination, of 
itself, is something inconsistent with practical wis- 
dom, I think you will find that your opinion is not 
founded on experience. On the contrary, I believe 
that there have been few men who have done great 
things in the world who have not had a large 
power of imagination. For imagination, if it be 
subject to reason, is its " slave of the lamp." 

It is a common error to suppose that practical 
wisdom is something Epicurean in its nature, which 
makes no difficulties, takes things as they come, is 
desirous of getting rid rather than of completing, 
and which, in short, is never troublesome. And 
from a fancy of this kind, many persons are con- 
sidered speculative, merely because they are of a 
searching nature, and are not satisfied with small 
expedients, and such devices as serve to conceal 

the ills they cannot cure. And if to be practical 
1* 



10 ON PRACTICAL WISDOM. 

is to do things in such a way as to leave a great 
deal for other people to undo at some future, 
and no very distant, period, then, certainly, these 
scrutinizing, pains-taking sort of persons are not 
practical. For it is their nature to prefer a good, 
open, visible rent to a time-serving patch. I do 
not mean to say that they may not resort to patch- 
ing as a means of delay. But they will not per- 
mit themselves to fancy that they have done a thing 
when they have only hit upon some expedient for 
putting off the doing. 

Bacon says, " In this theatre of man's life, God 
and angels only should be lookers-on ; that contem- 
plation and action ought ever to be united, a con- 
junction like unto that of the two highest planets, 
Saturn the planet of rest, and Jupiter the planet of 
action." It is in this conjunction, which seems to 
Bacon so desirable, that practical wisdom delights; 
and on that account it is supposed by some men to 
have a tinge of baseness in it. They do not know 
that practical wisdom is as far from what they term 
expediency, as it is from impracticability itself. They 
see how much of compromise there is in all human 
affairs. At the same time, they do not perceive 
that this compromise, which should be the nice 



ON PRACTICAL WISDOM. 11 

limit between wilfulness and a desertion of the light 
that is within us, is the thing of all others which 
requires the diligent exercise of that uprightness 
which they fear to put in peril, and which, they 
persuade themselves, will be strengthened by in- 
activity. They fancy, too, that high moral resolves 
and great principles are not for daily use, and that 
there is no room for them in the affairs of this life. 
This is an extreme delusion. For how is the world 
ever made better? Not by mean little schemes, 
which some men fondly call practical ; not by set- 
ting one evil thing to counteract another; but by 
the introduction of those principles of action which 
are looked upon at first as theories, but which are 
at last acknowledged and acted upon as common 
truths. The men who first introduce these princi- 
ples are practical men, though the practices which 
such principles create may not come into being in 
the life-time of their founders. 



lib to Contentment 



The first object of this essay is to suggest some 
antidotes against the manifold ingenuity of self-tor- 
menting. 

For instance, how much fretting migLc be pre- 
vented by a thorough conviction that there can be 
no such thing as unmixed good in this world ! In 
ignorance of this, how many a man, after having 
made a free choice in any matter, contrives to find 
innumerable causes for blaming his judgment ! 
Blue and green having been the only colors put 
before him, he is dissatisfied with himself because 
he omitted to choose pure white. Shenstone has 
worked out the whole proces with fidelity. " We 
are oftentimes in suspense betwixt the choice of 
different pursuits. We choose one at last doubt- 
ingly, and with an unconquered hankering after 
the other. We find the scheme which we have 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 13 

chosen answer our expectations but indifferently — 
most worldly projects will. We, therefore, repent 
of our choice, and immediately fancy happiness in 
the paths which we decline ; and this heightens 
our uneasiness. We might at least escape the ag- 
gravation of it. It is not improbable we had been 
more unhappy, but extremely probable we had 
not been less so, had we made a different decision." 

A great deal of discomfort arises from over-sensi- 
tiveness about what people may say of you or your 
actions. This requires to be blunted. Consider 
whether any thing that you can do will have much 
connection with what they will say. And be- 
sides, it may be doubted whether they will say any 
thing at all about you. Many unhappy persons 
seem to imagine that they are always in an amphi- 
theatre, with the assembled world as spectators ; 
whereas, all the while, they are playing to empty 
benches. They fancy, too, that they form the par- 
ticular theme of every passer-by. If, however, 
they must listen to imaginary conversations about 
themselves, they might, at any rate, defy the prov- 
erb, and insist upon hearing themselves well spo- 
ken of. 

Well, but suppose that it is no fancy ; and that 



14 AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 

you really are the object of unmerited obloquy. 
What then? It has been well said, that in that 
case the abuse does not touch you ; that if you are 
guiltless, it ought not to hurt your feelings any 
more than if it were said of another person, with 
whom you are not even acquainted. You may 
answer that this false description of you is often 
believed in by those whose good opinion is of 
importance to your welfare. That certainly is a 
palpable injury ; and the best mode of bearing up 
against it is to endeavor to form some just estimate 
of its nature and extent. Measure it by the world- 
ly harm which is done to you. Do not let your 
imagination conjure up all manner of apparitions 
of scorn, and contempt, and universal hissing. It 
is partly your own fault if the calumny is believed 
in by those who ought to know you, and in whose 
affections you live. That should be a circle within 
which no poisoned dart can reach you. And for 
the rest, for the injury done you in the world's esti- 
mation, it is simply a piece of ill-fortune, about 
which it is neither wise nor decorous to make much 
moaning. 

A little thought will sometimes prevent you from 
being discontented at not meeting with the grati- 
tude which you have expected. If you were only 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 15 

to measure your expectations of gratitude by the 
extent of benevolence which you have expended, 
you would seldom have occasion to call people un- 
grateful. But many persons are in the habit of 
giving such a factitious value to any services which 
they may render, that there is but little chance of 
their being contented with what they are likely to 
get in return, which, however, may be quite as 
much as they deserve. 

Besides, it is a common thing for people to ex- 
pect from gratitude what affection alone can give. 

There are many topics which may console you 
when you are displeased at not being as much 
esteemed as you think you ought to be. You may 
begin by observing that people in general will not 
look about for any body's merits, or admire any 
thing which does not come in their way. You may 
consider how satirical would be any praise which 
should not be based upon a just appreciation of 
your merits ; 3^ou may reflect how few of your fel- 
low-creatures can have the opportunity of forming 
a just judgment about you ; } T ou may then go fur- 
ther, and think how few of those few are persons 
whose judgment would influence }^ou deeply in 
other matters ; and you may conclude by imagin- 



16 AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 

ing that such persons do estimate you fairly, though 
perhaps you never hear it. 

The heart of man seeks for sympathy, and each 
of us craves a recognition of his talents and his 
labors. But this craving is in danger of becoming 
morbid, unless it be constantly kept in check by 
calm reflection on its vanity, or by dwelling upon 
the very different and far higher motives which 
should actuate us. That man has fallen into a piti- 
able state of moral sickness, in whose eyes the good 
opinion of his fellow-men is the test of merit, and 
their applause the principal reward for exertion. 

A habit of mistrust is the torment of some 
people. It taints their love and their friendship. 
They take up small causes of offense. They ex- 
pect their friends to show the same aspect to them 
at all times; which is more than human nature can 
do. The}?- try experiments to ascertain whether 
they are sufficiently loved ; they watch narrowly 
the effects of absence, and require their friends to 
prove to them that the intimacy is exactly upon 
the same footing as it was before. Some persons 
acquire these suspicious ways from a natural diffi- 
dence in themselves ; for which they are often loved 
the more : and they might find ample comfort in 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 17 

that, if they could but believe it. With others, 
these habits arise from a selfishness which cannot 
be satisfied. And their endeavors should be to 
uproot such a disposition, not to soothe it. 

Contentment abides with truth. You will gen- 
erally suffer for wishing to appear other than what 
you are ; whether it be richer, or greater, or more 
learned. The mask soon becomes an instrument 
of torture. 

Fit objects to employ the intervals of life are 
among the greatest aids to contentment that a man 
can possess. The lives of many persons are an 
alternation of the one engrossing pursuit, and a sort 
of listless apathy. They are either grinding, or 
doing nothing. Now to those who are half their 
lives fiercely busy, the remaining half is often tor- 
pid without quiescence. A man should have some 
pursuits which may be always in his power, and 
to which he may turn gladly in his hours of recrea- 
tion. 

And if the intellect requires thus to be provided 
with perpetual objects, what must it be with the 
affections ? Depend upon it, the most fatal idle- 
ness is that of the heart. And the man who feels 



18 AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 

weary of life may be sure that he does not love his 
fellow-creatures as he ought. 

You cannot hope for any thing like contentment, 
so long as you continue to attach that ridiculous 
degree of importance to the events of this life which 
so many people are inclined to do. Observe the 
effect which it has upon them : they are most un- 
comfortable if their little projects do not turn out 
according to their fancy ; nothing is to be angular 
to them ; they regard external things as the only 
realities ; and as they have fixed their abode here, 
they must have it arranged to their mind. In all 
they undertake, they feel the anxiety of a gambler, 
and not the calmness of a laboring man. It is, 
however, the success or failure of their efforts, and 
not the motives for their endeavor, which gives them 
this concern. " It will be all the same a hundred 
years hence." So says the Epicurean, as he saun- 
ters by. The Christian exhorts them to extend 
their hopes and their fears to the far future. But 
they are up to their lips in the present, though they 
taste it none the more for that. And so they go on, 
fretting, and planning, and contending ; until an 
event, about which of all their anxieties they have 
felt the least anxious, sweeps them and their cob- 
webs away from the face of the earth. 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 19 

The misery of others has always been used as a 
reasonable aid to contentment ; and it is so : not 
in an Epicurean sense ; for, indeed, I do not believe 
that that sweetness at beholding the distress of 
others, which Lucretius speaks of, is ever felt when 
the distress is really seen or known by us, but only 
when it is fancied. The misery, however, of his 
fellows must shame a man into thinking less about 
his own annoyances ; and it may serve to calm his 
mind even in the most poignant sorrow. Seneca 
says, " The poor inhabitant of a narrow alley 
mourned his son with a more patient mind, having 
seen premature funerals marshalled forth even from 
king's palaces ;" and Jeremy Taylor, addressing 
the men of his own time, exclaims, "When thy 
little misfortune troubles thee, remember that thou 
hast known the best of kings and the best of men 
put to death publicly by his own subjects." In 
our days, though kings still occupy the tragic stage, 
it is, alas, for classes and for races of men that our 
hearts must bleed the most. And, of a truth, a man 
may well forget his small discomforts, when, at 
any given moment, he may be sure that there are 
many thousand human beings on the Atlantic, ex- 
hausting almost every conceivable form of wretch- 



20 AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 

edness ; and most of them " wedged together in a 
mass of living corruption."* 

1 have no intention of putting forward specifics 
for real afflictions, or pretending to teach refined 
methods for avoiding grief. As long, however, as 
there is any thing to be done in a matter, the time 
for grieving about it has not come. But when the 
subject for grief is fixed and inevitable, sorrow is 
to be borne like pain. It is only a paroxysm of 
either that can justify us in neglecting the duties 
which no bereavement can lessen, and which no 
sorrow can leave us without. And we may re- 
member that sorrow is at once the lot, the trial, and 
the privilege of man. 

Most of the aids to contentment above suggested 
are comparatively superficial ones ; and, though 
they may be serviceable, there is much in human 
nature that they cannot touch. Even pagans were 



* Buxton's " African Slave-Trade and its Remedy." 
On the capture of the Flor de Loando, in 1838, the dead slaves were 
* drawn out" each morning by the legs, there not being room to go 
between them " to take up their bodies." Indeed, it was long ago 
given in evidence by an experienced witness, that slaves were stowed 
away " so that they had not so much room as a man in his coffin ;" 
and the horrors of the middle passage are said to have increased since 
that time. 



AIDS TO CONTENTMENT. 21 

wont to look for more potent remedies. They 
could no help seeking for some great idea to rest 
upon ; something to still the throbbing of their souls ; 
some primeval mystery which should be answer- 
able for the miseries of life. Such was their idea 
of Necessity, the source of such systems as the Stoic 
and the Epicurean. Christianity rests upon very 
different foundations. And surely a Christian's 
reliance on Divine goodness, and his full belief in 
another world, should console him under serious 
affliction, and bear the severer test of supporting 
him against that under-current of vexations which 
is not wanting in the smoothest life. 



(fit $?lf~li0ripto. 



There is always some danger of self-discipline 
leading to a state of self-confidence ; and the more 
so, when the motives for it are of a poor and worldly 
character, or the results of it outward only, and 
superficial. But surely when a man has got the 
better of any bad habit or evil disposition, his sen- 
sations should not be those of exultation only ; ought 
they not rather to be akin to the shuddering faint- 
ness with which he would survey a chasm that he 
had been guided to avoid, or with which he would 
recall to mind a dubious deadly struggle which had 
terminated in his favor ? The sense of danger is 
never, perhaps, so fully apprehended as when the 
danger has been overcome. 

Self-discipline is grounded on self-knowledge. 
A man may be led to resolve upon some general 
course of self-discipline by a faint glimpse of his 



ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 2 » 

moral degradation : let him not be contented with 
that small insight. His first step in self-discipline 
should be to attempt to have something like an 
adequate idea of the extent of the disorder. The 
deeper he goes in this matter, the better ; he must 
try to probe his own nature thoroughly. Men often 
make use of what self-knowledge they may possess 
to frame for themselves skilful flattery, or to amuse 
themselves in fancying what such persons as they 
are would do under various imaginary circum- 
stances. For flatteries and for fancies of this kind, 
not much depth of self-knowledge is required : but 
he who wants to understand his own nature for 
the purposes of self-discipline, must strive to learn 
the whole truth about himself, and not shrink from 
telling it to his own soul : 

" To thine own self be true, 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man." 

The old courtier Polonius meant this for worldly 
wisdom ; but it may be construed much more 
deeply. 

Imagine the soul, then, thoroughly awake to its 
state of danger, and the whole energies of the man 
devoted to self-improvement. At this point, there 



24 ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 

often arises a habit of introspection which is too 
limited in its nature : we scrutinize each action as 
if it were a thing by itself, independent and self- 
originating ; and so our scrutiny does less good, 
perhaps, than might be expected from the pain it 
gives and the resolution it requires. Any truthful 
examination into our actions must be good ; but 
we ought not to be satisfied with it, until it becomes 
both searching and progressive. Its aim should be 
not only to investigate instances, but to discover 
principles. Thus, suppose that our conscience 
upbraids us for any particular bad habit : we then 
regard each instance of it with intense self-reproach, 
and long for an opportunity of proving the amend- 
ment which seems certain to arise from our pangs 
of regret. The trial comes : and sometimes oui 
former remorse is remembered, and saves us; and 
sometimes it is forgotten, and our conduct is as 
bad as it was before our conscience was awakened. 
Now in such a case we should begin at the begin- 
ning, and strive to discover where it is that we are 
wrong in the heart. This is not to be done by 
weighing each particular instance, and observing 
after what interval it occurred, and whether with 
a little more or a little less temptation than usual : 
instead of dwelling chiefly on mere circumstances 



ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 25 

of this kind, we should try and get at the substance 
of the thing, so as to ascertain what fundamental 
precept of God is violated by the habit in question. 
That precept we should make our study ; and then 
there is more hope of a permanent amendment. 

Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away 
a mist ; but, by ascending a little, you may often 
look over it altogether. So it is with our moral 
improvement : we wrestle fiercely with a vicious 
habit, which would have no hold upon us if we 
ascended into a higher moral atmosphere. 

As I have heard suggested, it is by adding to 
our good purposes, and nourishing the affections 
which are rightly placed, that we shall best be 
able to combat the bad ones. By adopting such a 
course, you will not have yielded to your enemy, 
but will have gone, in all humility, to form new 
alliances ; you will then resist an evil habit with 
the strength which you have gained in carrying 
out a good one. You will find, too, that when you 
set your heart upon the things that are worthy of 
it, the small selfish ends, which used to be so dear 
to it, will appear almost disgusting ; you will won- 
der that they could have had such hold upon you. 



26 ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 

In the same way, if you extend and deepen your 
sympathies, the prejudices which have hitherto 
clung obstinately to you will fall away ; your for- 
mer uncharitableness will seem absolutely distaste- 
ful ; you will have brought home to it feelings and 
opinions with which it cannot live. 

Man, a creature of twofold nature, body and soul, 
should have both parts of that nature engaged in 
any matter in which he is concerned; spirit and 
form must both enter into it. It is idol-worship to 
substitute the form for the spirit ; but it is a vain 
philosophy which seeks to dispense with the form. 
All this applies to self-discipline. 

See how most persons love to connect some out- 
ward circumstance with their good resolutions ; 
they resolve on commencing the new year with 
a surrender of this bad habit ; they will alter their 
conduct as soon as they are at such a place. The 
mind thus shows its feebleness ; but we must not 
conclude that the support it naturally seeks is use- 
less. At the same time that we are to turn our 
chief attention to the attainment of right principles, 
we cannot safely neglect any assistance which may 
strengthen us in contending against bad habits ; far 
is it from the spirit of true humility to look down 



OX SELF-DISCIPLINE. 27 

upon such assistance. Who would not be glad to 
have the ring of Eastern story, which should re- 
mind the wearer by its change of color of his want 
of shame ? Still these auxiliaries partake of a 
mechanical nature ; we must not expect more from 
them than they can give : they may serve as aids 
to memory; they may form landmarks, as it were, 
of our progress ; but they cannot, of themselves, 
maintain that progress. 

It is in a similar spirit that we should treat what 
may be called prudential considerations. We may 
listen to the suggestions of prudence, and find them 
an aid to self-discipline ; but we should never rest 
upon them. While we do not fail to make the due 
use of them, we must never forget that they do not 
go to the root of the matter. Prudence may enable 
a man to conquer the world, but not to rule his 
own heart; it may change one evil passion for 
another, but it is not a thing of potency enough to 
make a man change his nature. 

Prayer is a constant source of invigoration to 
self-discipline ; not the thoughtless praying, which 
is a thing of custom, but that which is sincere, 
intense, watchful. Let a man ask himself whether 
he really would have the thing he prays for ; let 



28 ON SELF-DISCIPLINE. 

him think, while he is praying for a spirit of for- 
giveness, whether even at that moment he is dis- 
posed to give up the luxury of anger. If not, what 
a horrible mockery it is ! To think that a man 
can find nothing better to do, in the presence of 
his Creator, than telling off so many words ; alone 
with his God, and repeating his task like a child ; 
longing to get rid of it, and indifferent to its mean- 
ing ! 



<t)n nm f tiftgtmnin of oilier 381m. 



In forming these lightly, we wrong ourselves > 
and those whom we judge. In scattering such 
things abroad, we endow our unjust thoughts with 
a life which we cannot take away, and become 
false witnesses to pervert the judgments of the 
world in general. Who does not feel that to de- 
scribe with fidelity the least portion of the entangled 
nature that is within him would be no easy matter ? 
And yet the same man who feels this, and who, per- 
haps, would be ashamed of talking at hazard about 
the properties of a flower, of a weed, of some 
figure in geometry, will put forth his guesses about 
the character of his brother-man, as if he had the 
fullest authority for all that he was saying. 

But perhaps we are not wont to make such rash 
remarks ourselves ; we are only pleased to receive 



30 ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 

them with the most obliging credence from the lips 
of any person we may chance to meet with. Such 
credulity is any thing but blameless. We cannot 
think too seriously of the danger of taking upon 
trust these off-hand sayings, and of the positive 
guilt of uttering them as if they were our own, or 
had been assayed by our observation. How much 
we should be ashamed if we knew the slight 
grounds of some of those uncharitable judgments 
to which we lend the influence of our name by re- 
peating them ! And even if we repeat such things 
only as we have good reason to believe in, we 
should still be in no hurry to put them forward, 
especially if they are sentences of condemnation. 
There is a maxim of this kind which Thomas a 
Kempis, in his chapter " De Prudentia in Agen- 
dis," # has given with all the force of expression that 
it merits : " Ad hanc etiam pertinet, non quibusli- 
bet hominum verbis credere ; nee audita vel credita, 
rrtox ad aliorum aures effundere."i 

There are certain things quite upon the surface 
of a man's character ; there are certain obvious 



* Of Prudence in respect to Actions. 

f With regard to this, it even behooves not to trust any words 
-whatsoever of men ; nor anon to pour into the ears of others things 
heard or believed. 



ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 31 

facts in any man's conduct ; and there are persons 
who, being very much before the world, offer plenty 
of materials for judging about them. Such circum- 
stances as these may fairly induce you to place 
credence in a general opinion, which, however, you 
have no means of verifying in any way for yourself; 
but in no case should you suffer yourself to be 
carried away at once by the current sayings about 
men's characters and conduct. If you do, you are 
helping to form a mob. Consider what these say- 
ings are ; how seldom they embody the character 
discussed, or go far to exhaust the question, if it is 
one of conduct. It is well if they describe a part 
with faithfulness, or give indications from which a 
shrewd and impartial thinker may deduce some 
true conclusions. Again, these sayings may be 
true in themselves, but the prominence given to 
them may lead to very false impressions. Besides, 
how many of them must be formed upon the opin- 
ion of a few persons, and those, perhaps, forward 
thinkers. 

You feel that you yourself would be liable to 
make mistakes of all kinds, if you had to form an 
independent judgment in the matter ; do not too 
readily suppose that the general opinions you hear 
are free from such mistakes, merely because they 



32 ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 

are made, or appear to you to be made, by a great 
many people. 

If we come to analyze the various opinions we 
hear of men's characters and conduct, there must 
be many which are formed wrongly, though sin- 
cerely, either from imperfect information or erro- 
neous reasoning. There will be others which are 
the simple result of the prejudices and passions of 
the persons judging, of their humors, and some- 
times even of their ingenuity. There will be 
others grounded on total misrepresentations, which 
arise from imperfect hearing, or from some entire 
mistake, or from a report being made by a person 
who understood so little of the matter that it was 
not possible for him to convey, with any thing like 
accuracy, what he heard about it. Then there are 
the careless things which are said in general con- 
versation, but which often have as much apparent 
weight as if they had been well considered. Some- 
times these various causes are combined ; and the 
result is, that an opinion of some man's character 
and conduct gets abroad, which is formed after a 
wrong method, by prejudiced persons, upon a false 
statement of facts, respecting a matter which they 
cannot possibly understand ; and this is then left 



ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 33 

to be inflated by folly, and blown about by idle- 
ness. 

There is an excellent passage in Wollaston's 
" Religion of Nature," upon this subject, where he 
says, " The good or bad repute of men depends in a 
great measure upon mean people, who carry their 
stories from family to family, and propagate them 
very fast ; like little insects, which lay apace, and the 
less the faster. There are few, very few, who have 
the opportunity and the will and the ability to repre- 
sent things truly. Besides the matters of fact them- 
selves, there are many circumstances which, before 
sentence is passed, ought to be known and weighed, 
and yet scarce ever can be known, but to the per- 
son himself who is concerned. He may have other 
views, and another sense of things, than his judges 
have ; and w T hat he understands, what he feels, 
what he intends, may be a secret confined to his 
own breast. Or perhaps the cen surer, notwith- 
standing this kind of men talk as if they were in- 
fallible, may be mistaken himself in his opinion, 
and judge that to be wrong which in truth is 
right." 

Few people have imagination enough to enter 
into the delusions of others, or indeed to look at 
the actions of any other person with any prejudices 
2* 



34 ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 

but their own. Perhaps, however, it would be 
nearer the truth to say that few people are in the 
habit of employing their imagination in the service 
of charity. Most persons require its magic aid to 
gild their castles in the air ; to conduct them along 
those fancied triumphal processions in which they 
themselves play so conspicuous a part; to conquer 
enemies for them without battles ; and to make 
them virtuous without effort. This is what they 
want their imagination for ; they cannot spare it 
for any little errand of charity. And sometimes, 
when men do think charitably, they are afraid to 
speak out, for fear of being considered stupid, or 
credulous. 

We have been considering the danger of adopt- 
ing current sayings about men's character and con- 
duct; but suppose we consider, in detail," the dif- 
ficulty of forming an original opinion on these 
matters, especially if we have not a personal 
knowledge of the men of whom we speak. In the 
first place, we seldom know with sufficient exact- 
ness the facts upon which we judge ; and a little 
thing may make a great difference when we come 
to investigate motives. But the report of a trans- 
action sometimes represents the real facts no better 



ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 35 

than the labored variation does the simple air ; 
which, amidst so many shakes and flourishes, might 
not be recognized even by the person who composed 
it. Then again, how can we insure that we rightly 
interpret those actions which we exactly know ? 
Perhaps one of the first motives that we look for is 
self-interest, when we want to explain an action ; 
but we have scarcely ever such a knowledge of 
the nature and fortunes of another, as to be able to 
decide what is his interest, much less what it may 
appear to him to be ; besides, a man's fancies, his 
envy, his wilfulness, every day interfere with and 
override his interests. He will know this himself, 
and will often try to conceal it by inventing motives 
of self-interest to account for his doing what he has 
a mind to do. 

It is well to be thoroughly impressed with a 
sense of the difficulty of judging about others ; still, 
judge we must, and sometimes very hastily ; the 
purposes of life require it. We have, however, 
more and better materials, sometimes, than we are 
aware of: we must not imagine that they are 
always deep-seated and recondite ; they often lie 
upon the surface. Indeed, the primary character 
of a man is especially discernible in trifles ; for then 



36 ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 

he acts, as it were, almost unconsciously. It is upon 
the method of observing and testing these things 
that a just knowledge of individual men in a great 
measure depends. You may learn more of a per- 
son even by a little converse with him, than by a 
faithful outline of his history. The most important 
of his actions may be any thing but the most signifi- 
cant of the man ; for they are likely to be the re- 
sults of many things besides his nature. To under- 
stand that, I doubt whether you might not learn 
more from a good portrait of him, than from two 
or three of the most prominent actions of his life. 
Indeed, if men did not express much of their nature 
in their manners, appearance, and general bearing, 
we should be at a sad loss to make up our minds 
how to deal with each other. 

In judging of others, it is important to distinguish 
those parts of the character and intellect which are 
easily discernible from those which require much 
observation. In the intellect, we soon perceive 
whether a man has wit, acuteness, or logical power. 
It is not easy to discover whether he has judgment. 
And it requires some study of the man to ascertain 
whether he has practical wisdom ; which, indeed, 
is a result of high moral as well as intellectual 
qualities. 



ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 37 

In the moral nature, we soon detect selfishness, 
egotism, and exaggeration. Carelessness about 
truth is soon found out ; you see it in a thousand 
little things. On the other hand, it is very difficult 
to come to a right conclusion about a man's tem- 
per, until you have seen a great deal of him. Of 
his tastes, some will lie on the surface, others not ; 
for there is a certain reserve about most people in 
speaking of the things they like best. Again, it is 
always a hard matter to understand any man's 
feelings. Nations differ in their modes of express- 
ing feelings, and how much more individual men ! 

There are certain cases in which we are pecu- 
liarly liable to err in our judgments of others. 
Thus, I think, we are all disposed to dislike, in a 
manner disproportionate to their demerits, those 
who offend us by pretension of any kind. We are 
apt to fancy that they despise us ; whereas, all the 
while, perhaps, they are only courting our admira- 
tion. There are people who wear the worst part of 
their characters outwards : they offend our vanity ; 
they rouse our fears ; and under these influences 
we omit to consider how often a scornful man is 
tender-hearted, and an assuming man, one who 
longs to be popular and to please. 

Then there are characters of such a different 



38 ON OUR JUDGMENTS OF OTHER MEN. 

kind from our own, that we are without the means 
of measuring and appreciating them. A man who 
has no humor, how difficult for him to understand 
one who has ! 

But of all the errors in judging of others, some 
of the worst are made in judging of those who are 
nearest to us. They think that we have entirely 
made up our minds about them, and are apt to 
show us that sort of behavior only which they 
know we expect. Perhaps, too, they fear us, or 
they are convinced that we do not and cannot 
sympathize with them. And so we move about in 
a mist, and talk of phantoms as if they were living 
men, and think that we understand those who 
never interchange any discourse with us but the 
talk of the market-place ; or if they do, it is only 
as players who are playing a part set down in cer- 
tain words, and to be eked out with stage gestures 
for each affection, who would deem themselves 
little else than mad if they were to say out to us 
any thing of their own. 



d&n t[r* (Bxtum of ^mtmkwt 



With the most engaging objects of benevolence 
around them, men consume the largest part of their 
existence in the acquisition of money, or of know- 
ledge ; or in sighing for the opportunities of ad- 
vancement ; or in doting over some unavailing 
sorrow. Or, as it often happens, they are out- 
wardly engaged in slaving over the forms and 
follies of the world, while their minds are given 
up to dreams of vanity, or to long-drawn reveries, 
a mere indulgence of their fancy. And yet hard 
by them are groans, and horrors, and sufferings of 
all kinds, which seem to penetrate no deeper than 
their senses. 

Let them think what boundless occupations there 
are before us all ! Consider the masses of human 
beings in our manufacturing towns and crowded 
cities left to their own devices — the destitute peas- 



40 ON THE EXERCISE OF BENEVOLENCE. 

antry of our sister-land — the horrors of slavery wher- 
ever it exists — the general aspect of the common 
people — the pervading want of education — the falla- 
cies and falsehoods which are left, unchecked, to ac- 
complish all the mischief that is in them — the many 
legal and executive reforms not likely to meet with 
much popular impulse, and requiring, on that ac- 
count, the more diligence from those who have any 
insight into such matters. By employing himself 
upon anyone of the above subjects, a man is likely 
to do some good. If he only ascertains what has 
been done, and what is doing, in any of these mat- 
ters, he may be of great service. A man of real in- 
formation becomes a centre of opinion, and there- 
fore of action. 

Many a man w T ill say : " This is all very true ; 
there certainly is a great deal of good to be done. 
Indeed, one is perplexed what to choose as one's 
point of action ; and still more how to begin upon 
it." To which I would answer : Is there no one 
service for the great family of man which has yet 
interested you ? Is no work of benevolence brought 
near to you by the peculiar circumstances of your 
life ? If there is, follow it at once. If not, still 
you must not wait for something apposite to occur. 
Take up any subject relating to the welfare of man- 



ON THE EXERCISE OF BENEVOLENCE. 41 

kind, the first that comes to hand ; read about it ; 
think about it ; trace it in the world, and see if it 
will not come to your heart. How listlessly the 
eye glances over the map of a country upon which 
we have never set foot ! On the other hand, with 
what satisfaction we contemplate the mere outline 
only of a land we have once travelled over ! Think 
earnestly upon any subject, investigate it sincerely, 
and you are sure to love it. You will not complain 
again of not knowing whither to direct your atten- 
tion. There have been many enthusiasts about 
heraldry. Many have devoted themselves to chess. 
Is the welfare of living, thinking, suffering, eternal 
creatures, less interesting than "azure" and " ar- 
gent," or than the knight's move, and the progress 
of a pawn ? 

There are many persons, doubtless, who feel 
the wants and miseries of their fellow-men ten- 
derly, if not deeply ; but this feeling is not of the 
kind to induce them to exert themselves out of their 

own small circle. Thev have little faith in their 

%/ 

individual exertions doing aught towards a remedy 
for any of the great disorders of the world. If an 
evil of magnitude forces itself upon their attention, 
they take shelter in a comfortable sort of belief that 
the course of events, or the gradual enlightenment 



4:2 ON THE EXERCISE OF BENEVOLENCE. 

of mankind, or, at any rate, something which is too 
large for them to have any concern in, will set 
it right. In short, they are content to remain spec- 
tators ; or, at best, to wait until an occasion shall 
arrive when their benevolence may act at once, 
with as little preparation of means as if it were 
something magical. 

But opportunities of doing good, though abun- 
dant, and obvious enough, are not exactly fitted to 
our hands ; we must be alert in preparing our- 
selves for them. Benevolence requires method 
and activity in its exercise. It is by no means the 
same sort of thing as the indolent good humor with 
w r hich a well-fed men, reclining on a sunny bank, 
looks upon the working world around him. 

As to the notion of waiting for the. power to do 
good, it is one that we must never listen to. Surely 
the exercise of a man's benevolence is not to depend 
upon his worldly good fortune ! Every man has 
to-day the power of laying some foundation for 
doing good, if not of doing it. And whoever does 
not exert himself until he has a large power of 
carrying out his good intentions, may be sure that 
he will not make the most of the opportunity when 
it comes. It is not in the heat of action, nor 
when a man, from his position, is likely to be 



ON THE EXERCISE OF BENEVOLENCE. 43 

looked up to with some reverence, that he should 
have to begin his search for facts or principles. He 
should then come forth to apply results ; not to 
work them out painfully, and perhaps precipitately, 
before the eyes of the world. 

The worldly-wise may ask : " Will not these 
benevolent pursuits prevent a man from following 
with sufficient force," what they call, " his legiti- 
mate occupations?" I do not see why. Surely 
Providence has not made our livelihood such an 
all-absorbing affair, that it does not leave us room 
or time for our benevolence to work in However, 
if a man will only give up that portion of his think- 
ing time which he spends upon vain-glory, upon 
imagining, for instance, what other people are 
thinking about him, he will have time and energy 
enough to pursue a very laborious system of benev- 
olence. 

I do not mean to contend that active benevolence 
may not hinder a man's advancement in the world : 
for advancement greatly depends upon a reputation 
for excellence in some one thing of which the world 
perceives that it has present need ; and an obvious 
attention to other things, though perhaps not incom- 
patible with the excellence itself, may easily pre- 



44 ON THE EXERCISE OF BENEVOLENCE. 

vent a person from obtaining a reputation for it. 
But any deprivation of this kind would be readily 
endured if we only took the view of our social re- 
lations which Christianity opens to us. We should 
then see that benevolence is not a thing to be taken 
up by chance, and put by at once to make way for 
every employmeut which savors of self-interest. 
Benevolence is the largest part of our business, be- 
ginning with our home duties, and extending itself 
to the utmost verge of humanity. A vague feeling 
of kindness towards our fellow-creatures is no 
state of mind to rest in. It is not enough for us 
to be able to say that nothing of human interest is 
alien to us, and that we give our acquiesence, oi 
indeed our transient assistance, to any scheme of 
benevolence that may come in our way. No : in 
promoting the welfare of others we must toil ; we 
must devote to it earnest thought, constant care, 
and zealous endeavor. What is more, we must do 
all this with patience ; and be ready, in the same 
cause, to make an habitual sacrifice of our own 
tastes and wishes. Nothing short of this is the visit- 
ing the sick, feeding the hungry, and clothing the 
naked, which our creed requires of us. 

Kindness to animals is no unworthy exercise of 



ON THE EXERCISE OF BENEVOLENCE. 45 

benevolence. We hold that the life of brutes per- 
ishes with their breath, and that they are never to 
be clothed again with consciousness. The inevit- 
able shortness then of their existence should plead 
for them touchingly. The insects on the surface of 
the water, poor ephemeral things, who would need- 
lessly abridge their dancing pleasure of to-day ? 
Such feelings we should have towards the whole 
animate creation. To those animals over which 
we are masters for however short a time, we have 
positive duties to perform. This seems too obvious 
to be insisted upon ; but there are persons who act 
as though they thought they could buy the right 
of ill-treating any of God's creatures. 

We should never in any way consent to the ill 
treatment of animals, because the fear of ridicule, 
or some other fear, prevents our interfering. As to 
there being any thing really trifling in any act of 
humanity, however slight, it is moral blindness to 
suppose so. The few moments in the course of 
each day which a man absorbed in some worldly 
pursuit may carelessly expend in kind words or 
trifling charities to those around him, (and kindness 
to an animal is one of these,) are perhaps, in the 
sight of Heaven, the only time that he has lived to 
any purpose worthy of recording. 



Dnmwrtu Jtimh 



Tacitus says of Agricola, that " he governed 
his family, which many find to be a harder task 
than to govern a province." And the worst of this 
difficulty is, that its existence is frequently unper- 
ceived, until it comes to be pressingly felt. 

For, either a man thinks that he must needs un- 
derstand those whom he sees daily, and also, per- 
haps, that it is no great matter whether he under- 
stand them or not, if he is resolved to do his duty 
by them ; or he believes that in domestic rule there 
is much license, and that each occasion is to be 
dealt with by some law made at the time, or after ; 
or he imagines that any domestic matter which he 
may leave to-day omitted or ill-done can be re- 
paired at his leisure, when the concerns of the 
outer world are not so pressing as they are at 
present. 



DOMESTIC RULE. 47 

Bat each day brings its own duties, and carries 
them along with it ; and they are as waves broken 
on the shore, many like them coming after, but 
none ever the same. And amongst all his duties, 
as there are none in which a man acts more by him- 
self, and can do more harm with less outcry from 
the world, so there are none requiring more fore- 
thought and watchfulness than those which arise 
from his domestic relations. Nor can there be a 
reasonable hope of his fulfilling those duties while 
he is ignorant of the feelings, however familiar he 
may be with the countenances, of those around him. 

The extent and power of domestic rule are very 
great; but this is often overlooked by the persons 
who possess it, and they are rather apt to under- 
rate the influence of their own authority. They 
can hardly imagine how strongly it is felt by otners, 
unless they see it expressed in something outward. 
The effects of this mistake are often increased by 
another, which comes into operation when men are 
dealing with their inferiors in rank and education ; 
in which case they are rather apt to fancy that the 
natural sense of propriety, which woull put the 
right limit to familiar intercourse, belongs only to 
the well-educated or the well-born. And from 



48 DOMESTIC RULE. 

either of these causes, or both united, they are 
led, perhaps, to add to their authority by a harsh- 
ness not their own, rather than to impair it, as they 
fancy, by that degree of freedom which they must 
allow to those around them, if they would enter 
into their feelings and understand their dispositions. 
Perhaps there are some persons who think that they 
can manage very well without this familiar inter- 
course ; and certainly there is but little occasion 
for knowing much about the nature of those whom 
you only intend to restrain. Coercion, however, is 
but a small part of government. 

We should always be most anxious to avoid pro- 
voking the rebel spirit of the will in those who are 
intrusted to our guidance ; we should not attempt 
to tie them up to their duties, like galley-slaves to 
their labor. We should be very careful that, in our 
anxiety to get the outward part of an action per- 
formed to our mind, we do not destroy that germ 
of spontaneousness which could alone give any sig- 
nificance to the action. God has allowed free will 
to man, for the choice of good or evil ; and is 
it likely that it is left to us to make our fellow- 
creatures virtuous by word of command ? We 
may insist upon a routine of proprieties being per- 



DOMESTIC RULE. 49 

formed with soldier-like precision ; but there is no 
drilling of men's hearts. 

• It is a great thing to maintain the just limits of 
domestic authority, and to place it upon its right 
foundation. You cannot make reason conform to 
it. It may be fair to insist upon a certain thing 
being done, but not that others should agree with 
you in saying that it is the best thing that could 
have been done ; for there cannot be a shorter 
way of making them hypocritical. Your submit- 
ting the matter at all to their judgments may be 
gratuitous ; but if you do so, you must remember 
that the courts of reason recognize no difference 
of persons. Your wishes may fairly outweigh their 
arguments ; but this, of course, is foreign to the 
reasonableness or unreasonableness of the thing 
itself, considered independently. 

Domestic rule is founded upon truth and love. 
If it has not both of these, it is nothing better than 
a despotism. 

It requires the perpetual exercise of love in its 
most extended form. You have to learn the dis- 
positions of those under you, and to teach them to 
understand yours. In order to do this, you must 
sympathize with them, and convince them of your 



50 DOMESTIC RULE. 

doing so ; for upon your sympathy will often de- 
pend their truthfulness. Thus, you must persuade 
a child to place confidence in you, if you wish to 
form an open, upright character. You cannot ter- 
rify it into habits of truth. On the contrary, are 
not its earliest falsehoods caused by fear, much 
oftener than from a wish to obtain any of its little 
ends by deceit? How often the complaint is heard 
from those in domestic authority, that they are not 
confided in ! But they forget how hard it is for 
an inferior to confide in a superior, and that he 
will scarcely venture to do so without the hope of 
some sympathy on the part of the latter ; and the 
more so, as half our confidences are about our fol- 
lies, or what we deem such. 

Every one who has paid the slightest attention 
to this subject knows, that domestic rule is built 
upon justice, and therefore upon truth ; but it may 
not have been observed what evils will arise from 
even a slight deviation into conventionality. For 
instance, there is a common expression about 
" overlooking trifles." But what many persons 
should say, when they use this expression, is, — 
That they affect not to observe something, when 
there is no reason why they should not openly 
recognize it. Thus they contrive to make matter 



DOMESTIC RULE. 51 

of offense out of things which really have no 
harm in them. Or the expression means that 
they do not care to take notice of something which 
they really believe to be wrong ; and as it is not 
of much present annoyance to them, they persuade 
themselves that it is not of much harm to those 
who practise it. In either case, it is their duty to 
look boldly at the matter. The greater quantity 
of truth and distinctness you can throw into your 
proceedings, the better. Connivance creates un- 
certainty, and gives an example of slyness ; and 
very often you will find that you connive at some 
practice, merely because you have not made up 
your mind whether it is right or wrong, and you 
wish to spare yourself the trouble of thinking. All 
this is falsehood. 

Whatever you allow in the way of pleasure or 
of liberty, to those under your control, you should 
do it heartily ; you should recognize it entirely, 
encourage it, and enter into it. If, on the con- 
trary, you do not care for their pleasures, or sym- 
pathize with their happiness, how can you expect 
to obtain their confidence? And when you tell 
them that you consult their welfare, they look upon 
it as some abstract idea of your own. They will 
doubt whether you can know what is best for them, 



52 DOMESTIC RULE. 

if they have good reason for thinking that you are 
likely to leave their particular views of happiness 
entirely out of the account. 

In what has been already said, there has been 
much that evidently relates to the management of 
servants. But it may be well to allude more dis- 
tinctly to our duties towards them ; especially con- 
sidering that, in this country alone, they are said 
to amount to about a million of persons. In how 
many instances, though living under the same root 
with us, they share none of our feelings, nor we ot 
theirs ; their presence is felt as a restraint ; we 
know nothing about them but that they perform 
certain set duties ; and, in short, they may be said 
to be a kind of live furniture. There is something 
very repugnant to Christianity in all this. Surely 
there might be much more sympathy between mas- 
ters and servants, without our social system, at 
least the good part of it, being destroyed, or even 
in the slighest degree endangered. And, at any 
rate, we may be certain that a fastidious reserve 
towards our fellow-creatures is not the way in 
which true dignity or strength of mind will ever 
manifest themselves in us. 

We come next to consider some of the various 



DOMESTIC RULE. 53 

means which may be made use of in domestic 
rule. 

Of course it is obvious that his own example 
must be the chief means in any man's power, by 
which he can illustrate and enforce those duties 
which he seeks to impress upon his household. 

Next to this, praise and blame are among the 
strongest means which he possesses ; and they 
should not depend upon his humor. He should not 
throw a bit of praise at his dependents by way of 
making up for a previous display of anger, not war- 
ranted by the occasion. 

Ridicule is in general to be avoided ; not that it 
is inefficient, perhaps, for the present purpose, but 
because it tends to make a poor and world-fearing 
character. It is too strong a remedy, and can sel- 
dom be applied with such just precision as to neu- 
tralize the evil aimed at, without destroying, at the 
same time, something that is good. 

Still less should it ever appear that ridicule is di- 
rected against that which is good in itself, or which 
may be the beginning of goodness. There is per- 
haps more gentleness required in dealing with the 
infant virtues, than even with the vices of those 
under our guidance. We should be very kind to 
any attempt at amendment. An idle sneer, or a 



54 DOMESTIC RULE. 

look of incredulity, has been the death of many a 
good resolve. We should also be very cautious in 
reminding those who now would fain be wiser, of 
their rash sayings of evil, of their early and unchar- 
itable judgment of others ; otherwise we run a 
great risk of hardening them in evil. This is espe- 
cially to be guarded against with the young ; for, 
never having felt the mutability of all human things, 
nor having lived long enough to discover that his 
former certainties are among the strangest things 
which a man looks back upon in the vista of the 
past ; not perceiving that time is told by that pen- 
dulum, man, which goes backwards and forwards 
in its progress ; nor dreaming that the way to some 
opinions may lie through their opposites ; they are 
mightily ashamed of inconsistency, and may be 
made to look upon reparation as a crime. 

The following are some general maxims which 
may be of service to any one in domestic authority. 

The first is, to make as few crimes as he can ; 
and not to lay down those rules of practice which, 
from a careful observation of their consequences, 
he has ascertained to be salutary, as if they were 
so many innate truths, which all persons alike must 
at once and fully comprehend. 



DOMESTIC RULE. 5£ 

Let him not attempt to regulate other people's 
pleasures by his own tastes. 

In commanding, it will not always be superflu- 
ous for him to reflect whether the thing commanded 
is possible. 

In punishing, he should not consult his anger ; 
nor, in remitting punishment, his ease. 

Let him consider whether any part of what he 
is inclined to call disobedience, may have resulted 
from an insufficient expression of his own wishes. 

He should be inclined to trust largely. 



Advice is sure of a hearing when it coincides 
with our previous conclusions, and therefore comes 
n the shape of praise or of encouragement. It is 
not unwelcome when we derive it for ourselves, by- 
applying the moral of some other person's life to 
our own, though the points of resemblance which 
bring it home may be far from flattering, and the 
advice itself far from palatable. We can even en- 
dure its being addressed to us by another, when it 
is interwoven with regret at some error, not of ours, 
but of his ; and when we see that he throws in a 
little advice to us, by way of introducing, with 
more grace, a full recital of his own misfortunes. 

But in general it is with advice as with taxa- 
tion ; we can endure very little of either, if they 
come to us in the direct way. They must nol 
thrust themselves upon us. We do not under 



ADVICE. 57 

stand their knocking at our doors ; besides, they 
always choose such inconvenient times, and are 
for ever talking of arrears. 

There is a wide difference between the advice 
which is offered you, and that which you have to 
seek for ; the general carelessness of the one, and 
the caution of the other, are to be taken into account. 
In sifting the latter, you must take care to separate 
the decorous part of it. I mean all that which the 
adviser puts in, because he thinks the world would 
expect it from a person of his character and station ; 
all that which was to sound well to a third party, 
of whom, perhaps, the adviser stands somewhat in 
awe. You cannot expect him to neglect his own 
safety. The oracles will Philipize, as long as 
Philip is the master ; but still they have an inner 
meaning for Athenian ears. 

It is a disingenuous thing to ask for advice, when 
you mean assistance; and it will be a just punish- 
ment if you get that which you pretended to want. 
There is a still greater insincerity in affecting to 
care about another's advice, when you lay the cir- 
cumstances before him, only for the chance of his 
sanctioning a course which you had previously 
resolved on. This practice is noticed by Roche- 



58 ADVICE. 

foucault, who has also laid bare the falseness of 
those givers of advice who have hardly heard to 
the end of your story, before they have begun to 
think how they can advise upon it to their own in- 
terest or their own renown. 

It is a maxim of prudence, that when you advise 
a man to do something which is for your own in- 
terest as well as for his, you should put your own 
motive for advising him full in view, with all the 
weight that belongs to it. If you conceal the inter- 
est which you have in the matter, and he should 
afterwards discover it, he will be resolutely deaf 
even to that part of the argument which fairly does 
concern himself. If the lame man had endeavored 
to persuade his blind friend that it was pure char- 
ity which induced him to lend the use of his eyes, 
it is not improbable that he never would have been 
carried hpme, though it was the other's interest to 
carry him. 

To get extended views, you should consult with 
persons who differ from you in disposition, circum- 
stances, and modes of thought. At the same time, 
the most practicable advice may often be oblaii-x d 
from those who are of a similar nature to yourself, 
or who understand you so thoroughly that they are 



ADVICE. 59 

sure to make their advice personal. This advice 
will contain sympathy ; for, as it has been said, a 
man always sympathizes to a certain extent with 
what he understands. It will not, perhaps, be the 
soundest advice that can be given in the abstract, 
but it may be that which 3'ou can best profit by ; for 
you may be able to act up to it with some consist- 
ency. This applies more particularly when the 
advice is wanted for some matter which is not of 
a temporary nature, and where a course of action 
will have to be adopted. It is observed in "The 
Statesman," with much truth, " Nothing can be 
for a man's interest in the long run which is not 
founded on his character." 

For similar reasons, when you have to give ad- 
vice, you should never forget whom you are address- 
ing, and w T hat is practicable for him. You should 
not look about for the wisest thing which can be said, 
but for that which your friend has the heart to 
undertake, and the ability to accomplish. You 
must sometimes feel w T ith him, before yo\i can 
possibly think for him. There is more need of 
keeping this in mind, the greater you know the 
difference to be between your friend's nature and 
your own. Your advice should not degenerate 
into comparisons between what would have been 



CO ADVICE. 

your conduct, and what was your friend's. You 
should be able to take the matter up at the point 
at which it is brought to you. It is very well to 
go back, and to show him what might or what 
ought to have been done, if it throws any light 
upon what is to be done, or if you have any other 
good purpose in such conversation. But remem- 
ber that comment, however judicious, is not advice; 
and that advice should always tend to something 
practicable. 

The advice which we have just been speaking 
of, is of that kind which relates to points of con- 
duct. If you want to change a man's principles, 
you may have to take him out of himself, as it 
were ; to show him fully the intense difference be- 
tween your own views and his, and to trace up 
that difference to its source. Your object is not to 
make him do the best with what he has, but to 
induce him to throw something away altogether. 

There are occasions on which a man feels that 
he has so fully made up his mind, that hardly any 
thing could move him ; and at the same time, he 
knows that he shall meet with much blame from 
those whose good opinion is of value to him, if he 
acts according to that mind. Let him not think to 



ADVICE. 61 

break his fall by asking their advice beforehand. 
As it is, they will be severe upon him for not hav- 
ing consulted them ; but they will be outrrageous, 
if, after having consulted them, he then acts in 
direct opposition to their counsel. Besides, they 
will not be so inclined to parade the fact of their 
not having been consulted, as they would of their 
having given judicious advice, which was unhap- 
pily neglected. I am not speaking of those in- 
stances in which a man is bound to consult others, 
but of such as constantly occur, where his con- 
sulting them is a thing which may be expected, but 
is not due. 

In seeking for a friend to advise you, look for 
uprightness in him. rather than for ingenuity. It 
frequently happens that all you want is moral 
strength. You can discern consequences well 
enough, but cannot make up your mind to bear 
them. Let your Mentor also be a person of nice 
conscience, for such a one is less likely to fall into 
that error to which we are all so liable, of advising 
our friends to act with less forbearance, and with 
less generosity, than we should be inclined to show 
ourselves, if the case were our own. "If I were 
you," is a phrase often on our lips; but we take 



62 ADVICE. 

good care not to disturb our identity, nor to quit the 
disengaged position of a bystander. We recom- 
mend the course we might pursue if we were act- 
ing for you in your absence, but such as you never 
ought to undertake in your own behalf. 

Besides being careful for your own sake about 
the persons whom you go to for advice, you should 
be careful also for theirs. It is an act of selfish- 
ness unnecessarily to consult those who are likely 
to feel a peculiar difficulty or delicacy in being 
your advisers, and who, perhaps, had better not 
be informed at all about the matter. 



mm\\. 



For once that secrecy is formally imposed upon 
you, it is implied a hundred times by the concur- 
rent circumstances. All that your friend says to 
you, as to his friend, is intrusted to you only. 
Much of what a man tells you in the hour of afflic- 
tion, in sudden anger, or in any outpouring of his 
heart, should be sacred. In his craving for sym- 
pathy, he has spoken to you as to his own soul. 

To repeat what you have heard in social inter 
course is sometimes a sad treachery ; and when it 
is not treacherous, it is often foolish. For you com- 
monly relate but a part of what has happened, and 
even if you are able to relate that part with fair- 
ness, it is still as likely to be misconstrued as a 
word of many meanings, in a foreign tongue, with- 
out the context. 

There are few conversations which do not imply 



64 SECRECY. 

some degree of mutual confidence, however slight. 
And in addition to that which is said in confidence, 
there is generally something which is peculiar, 
though not confidential ; which is addressed to the 
present company alone, though not confided to their 
secrecy. It is meant for them, or for persons like 
them, and they are expected to understand it rightly. 
So that, when a man has no scruple in repeat- 
ing all that he hears to anybody that he meets, 
he pays but a poor compliment to himself; for he 
seems to take it for granted that what was said in 
his presence, would have been said, in the same 
words, at any time, aloud, and in the market-place. 
In short, that he is the average man of mankind ; 
which I doubt much whether any man would like 
to consider himself. 

On the other hand, there is an habitual and 
unmeaning reserve in some men, which makes 
secrets without any occasion ; and it is the least to 
say of such things that they are needless. Some- 
times it proceeds from an innate shyness or timid- 
ity of disposition ; sometimes from a temper natu- 
rally suspicious ; or it may be the result of having 
been frequently betrayed or oppressed. From 
whatever cause it comes, it is a failing. As cun- 
ning is some men's strength, so this sort of reserve 



SECRECY. 65 

is some men's prudence. The man who does not 
know when, or how much, or to whom to confide, 
will do well in maintaining a Pythagorean silence. 
It is his best course. I would not have him change 
it on any account ; I only wish him not to mistake 
it for wisdom. 

That happy union of frankness and reserve 
which is to be desired, comes not by studying 
rules, either for candor or for caution. It results 
chiefly from an uprightness of purpose, enlightened 
by a profound and delicate care for the feelings of 
others. This will go very far in teaching us what 
to confide, and what to conceal, in our own affairs ; 
what to repeat, and what to suppress in those of 
other people. The stone in which nothing is seen, 
and the polished metal which reflects all things, 
are both alike hard and insensible. 

When a matter is made public, to proclaim that 
it had ever been confided to your secrecy may be 
no trifling breach of confidence ; and it is the only 
one which is then left for you to commit. 

With respect to the kind of people to be trusted, 
it may be observed that grave, proud men are very 
false confidants ; and that those persons, who have 



66 SECRECY. 

ever had to conduct any business in which secrecy 
was essential, are likely to acquire a habit of re- 
serve for all occasions. 

On the other hand, it is a question whether a 
secret will escape sooner by means of a vain man, 
or a simpleton. There are some people who play 
with a secret, until at last it is suggested by their 
manner to some shrewd person who knows a little 
of the circumstances connected with it. There 
are others whom it is unsafe to trust ; not that they 
are vain, and so wear the secret as an ornament ; 
not that they are foolish, and so let it drop by acci- 
dent ; not that they are treacherous, and sell it for 
their own advantage. But they are simple-minded 
people, with whom the world has gone smoothly, 
who would not themselves make any mischief of 
the secret which they disclose, and therefore do 
not see what harm can come of telling it. 

Before you make any confidence, you should 
consider whether the thing you wish to confide is 
of weight enough to be a secret. Your small 
secrets require the greatest care. Most persons 
suppose that they have kept them sufficiently when 
they have been silent about them for a certain time ; 
and this is hardly to be wondered at, if there is 



SECRECY. 67 

nothing in their nature to remind a person that they 
were told to him as secrets. 

There is sometimes a good reason for using con- 
cealment even with your dearest friends. It is 
that you may be less liable to be reminded of your 
anxieties when you have resolved to put them 
aside. Few persons have tact enough to perceive 
when to be silent, and when to offer you counsel or 
condolence. 

You should be careful not to intrust another 
unnecessarily with a secret which it may be a 
hard matter for him to keep, and which may ex- 
pose him to somebody's displeasure, when it is 
hereafter discovered that he was the object of your 
confidence. Your desire for aid, or for sympathy, 
is not to be indulged by dragging other people into 
your misfortunes. 

There is as much responsibility in imparting 
your own secrets, as in keeping those of your 
neighbor. 



THE SECOND PAKT. 



" The wisdom touching negotiation or business hath not been hitherto 
collected into writing, to the great derogation of learning, and the pro- 
fessors of learning. For from this root springeth chiefly that note or 
opinion, which by us is expressed in adage to this effect : ' That there 
is no great concurrence between learning and wisdom.' For of the 
three wisdoms which we have set down to pertain to civil life, foi 
wisdom of behavior, it is by learned men for the most part despised, 
as an inferior to virtue, and an enemy to meditation ; for wisdom of 
government, they acquit themselves well when they are called to it* 
but that happeneth to few ; but for the wisdom of business, wherein 
man's life is most conversant, there be no books of it, except some few 
scattered advertisements, that have no proportion to the magnitude ol 
this subject. For if books were written of this, as the other, I doubt 
not but learned men with mean experience would far excel men of 
long experience without learning, and outshoot them in their owu 
bow." — Bacon's Advancement of Learning. 



ON THE 



(Itoata nf a Han nf Itotem 



The essential qualities for a man of business are 
of a moral nature ; these are to be cultivated first. 
He must learn betimes to love truth. That same love 
of truth will he found a potent ctiarm to bear him 
safely through the world's entanglements — I mean 
safely in the most worldly sense. Besides, the 
love of truth not only makes a man act with more 
simplicity, and therefore with less chance of error, 
but it conduces to the highest intellectual develop- 
ment. The following passage in "The Statesman" 
gives the reason. " The correspondences of wis- 
dom and goodness are manifold ; and that they will 
accompany each other is to be inferred, not only 
because men's wisdom makes them good, but also 
because their goodness makes them wise. Ques- 
tions of right and wrong are a perpetual exercise 
of the faculties of those who are solicitous as to the 



72 EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 

right and wrong of what they do and see ; and a 
deep interest of the heart in these questions carries 
with it a deeper cultivation of the understanding 
than can be easily effected by any other excitement 
to intellectual activity. 

What has just been said of the love of truth ap- 
plies also to other moral qualities. Thus, charity 
enlightens the understanding quite as much as it 
purifies the heart. And indeed knowledge is not 
more girt about with power than goodness is with 
wisdom. 

The next thing in the training of one who is to 
become a man of business, will be for him to form 
principles ; for without these, when thrown on the 
sea of action, he will be without rudder and com- 
pass. They are the best results of study. Wheth- 
er it is history, or political economy, or ethics, that 
he is studying, these principles are to be the re- 
ward of his labor. A principle resembles a law 
in the physical world ; though it can seldom have 
the same certainty, as the facts which it has to ex- 
plain and embrace do not admit of being weighed 
or numbered with the same exactness as material 
things. The principles which our student adopts 
at first may be unsound, may be insufficient, but he 
must not neglect to form some ; and must only nour- 



EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 73 

# 

ish a love of truth that will not allow him to hold 
to any, the moment that he finds them to be erro- 
neous. 

Much depends upon the temperament of a man 
of business. It should be hopeful, that it may bear 
him up against the faintheartedness, the folly, the 
falsehood, and the numberless discouragements 
which even a prosperous man will have to endure. 
It should also be calm ; for else he may be driven 
wild by any great pressure of business, and lose his 
time, and his head, in rushing from one unfinished 
thing to begin something else. Now this wished- 
for conjunction of the calm and the hopeful is very 
rare. It is, however, in every man's power to study 
well his own temperament, and to provide against 
the defects in it. 

A habit of thinking for himself is one which may 
be acquired by the solitary student. But the habit 
of deciding for himself, so indispensable to a man 
of business, is not to be gained by study. Deci- 
sion is a thing that cannot be fully exercised until 
it is actually wanted. You cannot play at decid- 
ing. You must have realities to deal with. 

It is true that the formation of principles, which, 
has been spoken of before, requires decision ; but 
it is of that kind which depends upon deliberate 



74 EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 



c 



judgment ; whereas the decision which is wanted 
in the world's business must ever be within call, 
and does not judge so much as it foresees and 
chooses. This kind of decision is to be found in 
those who have been thrown early on their own 
resources, or who have been brought up in great 
freedom. 

It would be difficult to lay down any course of 
study, not technical, that would be peculiarly fitted 
to form a man of business. He should be brought 
up in the habit of reasoning closely ; and to insure 
this, there is hardly any thing better for him than 
the study of geometry. 

In any course of study to be laid down for him, 
something like universality should be aimed at, 
which not only makes the mind agile, but gives 
variety of information. Such a system will make 
him acquainted with many modes of thought, with 
various classes of facts, and will enable him to 
understand men better. 

There will be a time in his youth which may, 
perhaps^ be well spent in those studies which are 
of a metaphysical nature. In the investigation of 
some of the great questions of philosophy, a breadth 
and a tone may be given to a man's mode of think- 



EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 75 

ing, which will afterwards be of signal use to him 
in the business of every-day life. 

We cannot enter here into a description of the 
technical studies for a man in business ; but I may 
point out that there are works which soften the tran- 
sition from the schools to the world, and which are 
particularly needed in a system of education like 
our own, consisting of studies for the most part 
remote from real life. These works are such as 
tend to give the student that interest in the common 
things about him, which he has scarcely ever been 
called upon to feel. They show how imagination 
and philosophy can be woven into practical wisdom. 
Such are the writings of Bacon. His lucid order 
his grasp of the subject, the comprehensiveness ol 
his views, his knowledge of mankind, the greatest 
perhaps that has ever been distinctly given out by 
an uninspired man, the practical nature of bis pur- 
poses, and his respect for any thing of human inter 
est, render Bacon's works unrivalled in their fitness 
to form the best men for the conduct of the high- 
est affairs. 

It is not, however, so much the thing studied, as 
the manner of studying it. Our student is not in- 
tended to become a learned man, but a man of busi- 



76 EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 

ness ; not a " full man," but " a ready man." He 
must be taught to arrange and express what he 
knows. For this purpose let him employ himself 
in making digests, arranging and classifying ma- 
terials, writing narratives, and in deciding upon 
conflicting evidence. All these exercises require 
method. He must expect that his early attempts 
will be clumsy ; he begins, perhaps, by dividing 
his subject in any way that occurs to him, with no 
other view than that of treating separate portions 
of it separately ; he does not perceive, at first, what 
things are of one kind, and what of another, and 
what should be the logical order of their following. 
But from such rude beginnings, method is devel- 
oped ; and there is hardly any degree of toil for 
which he would not be compensated by such a re- 
sult. He will have a sure reward in the clearness 
of his own views, and in the facility of explaining 
them to others. People bring their attention to the 
man who gives them most profit for it ; and this 
will be one who is a master of method. 

Our student should begin soon to cultivate a flu- 
ency in writing ; I do not mean a flow of words, 
but a habit of expressing his thoughts with accu- 
racy, with brevity, and with readiness ; which can 



EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 77 

only be acquired by practice early in life. You 
find persons who, from neglect in this part of their 
education, can express themselves briefly and accu- 
rately, but only after much care and labor. Again, 
you meet with others who cannot express them 
selves accurately, although they have method in 
their thoughts, and can write with readiness ; but 
they have not been accustomed to look to the pre- 
cise meaning of words ; and such people are apt 
to fall into the common error of indulging in a 
great many words, as if it were from a sort of hope 
that some of them might be to the purpose. 

In the style of a man of business, nothing is to 
be aimed at but plainness and precision. For in- 
stance, a close repetition of the same word for the 
same thing need not be avoided. The aversion 
to such repetitions may be carried too far in all 
kinds of writing. In literature, however, you are 
seldom brought to account for misleading people ; 
but in business you may soon oe called upon to 
pay the penalty for having shunned the word which 
would exactly have expressed your meaning. 

I cannot conclude this essay better than by en- 
deavoring to describe what sort of person a con- 
summate man of business should be. 

He should be able to fix his attention on details 



78 EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS. 

and be ready to give, every kind of argument a 
hearing. This will not encumber him, for he must 
have been practised beforehand in the exercise of 
his intellect, and be strong in principles. One 
man collects materials together, and there they 
remain, a shapeless heap ; another, possessed of 
method, can arrange what he has collected ; but 
such a man as I would describe, by the aid of 

principles, goes farther, and builds with his ma- 
terials. 

He should be courageous. The courage, how- 
ever, required in civil affairs, is that which belongs 
rather to the commander than the common soldier. 
But any kind of courage is serviceable. 

Besides a stout heart, he should have a patient 
temperament, and a vigorous but disciplined im- 
agination ; and then he will plan boldly and with 
large extent of view, execute calmly, and not be 
stretching out his hand for things not yet within 
his grasp. He will let opportunities grow before 
his eyes until they are ripe to be seized. He will 
Lhink steadily over possible failure, in order to pro- 
vide a remedy or a retreat. There will be the 
strength of repose about him. 

He must have a deep sense of responsibility. 
He must believe in the power and vitality of truth, 



EDUCATION OF A MAN OF BUSINESS* 79 

and in all he does or says, should be anxious to 
express as much truth as possible. 

His feeling of responsibility and love of truth 
will almost inevitably endow him with diligence, 
accuracy, and discreetness — those commonplace 
requisites for a good man of business, without 
which all the rest may never come to be " trans- 
lated into action.*' 



dDn ijje <KranHorttai of *$>mwbb. 



This subject may be divided into two parts. 
1. Dealing with others about business. 2. Deal- 
ing with the business itself. 

1. Dealing with others about Business. 

The first part of the general subject embraces 
the choice and management of agents, the transac- 
tion of business by means of interviews, the choice 
of colleagues, and the use of councils. Each of 
these topics will be treated separately. There 
remain, however, certain general rules with respect 
to our dealings with others, which may naturally 
find a place here. 

In your converse with the world, avoid any thing 
like a juggling dexterity. The proper use of dex- 
terity is to prevent your being circumvented by the 
cunning of others. It should not be aggressive. 



ON THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 81 

Concessions and compromises form a large and 
a very important part of our dealings with others. 
Concessions must generally be looked upon as dis- 
tinct defeats ; and you must expect no gratitude 
for them. I am far from saying that it may not be 
wise to make concessions, but this will be done 
more wisely when you understand the nature of 
them. 

In making compromises, do not think to gain 
much by concealing your views and wishes. You 
are as likely to suffer from its not being known 
how to please or satisfy you, as from any attempt 
to overreach you, grounded on a knowledge of your 
wishes. 

Delay is in some instances to be adopted advi- 
sedly. It sometimes brings a person to reason 
when nothing else could ; when his mind is so 
occupied with one idea, that he completely over- 
estimates its relative importance. He can hardly 
be brought to look at the subject calmly by any 
force of reasoning. For this disease time is the 
only doctor. 

A good man of business is very watchful, both 
over himself and others, to prevent things from 



8L ON THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 

being carried against his sense of right in moments 
of lassitude. After a matter has been much dis- 
cussed, whether to the purpose or not, there comes 
a time when all parties are anxious that it should 
be settled > and there is then some danger of the 
handiest way of getting rid of the matter being 
taken for the best. 

It is often worth while to bestow much pains in 
gaining over foolish people to your way of think- 
ing ; and you should do it soon. Your reasons 
will always have some weight with the wise. But 
if at first you omit to put your arguments before 
the foolish, they will form their prejudices ; and a 
fool is often very consistent, and very fond o*. 
repetition. He will be repeating his folly in sea- 
son and out of season, until at last it has a hear- 
ing ; and it is hard if it does not sometimes chime 
in with external circumstances. 

A man of business should take care to consult 
occasionally with persons of a nature quite differ 
ent from his own. To very few are given all the 
qualities requisite to form a good man of business 
Thus, a man may have the sternness and the fix 
edness of purpose so necessary in the conduct o. 



ON THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 83 

affairs, yet these qualities prevent him, perhaps, 
from entering into the characters of those about 
him. He is likely to want tact. He will be un- 
prepared for the extent of versatility and vacillation 
in other men. But these defects and oversights 
might be remedied by consulting with persons 
whom he knows to be possessed of the qualities 
supplementary to his own. Men of much depth of 
mind can bear a great deal of counsel; for it does 
not easily deface their own character, nor render 
their purposes indistinct. 

2. Dealing with the Business itself. 

The first thing to be considered in this division 
of the subject is the collection and arrangement of 
your materials. Do noc fail to begin with the ear- 
liest history of the matter under consideration. Be 
careful not to give way to any particular theory, 
while you are merely collecting materials, lest it 
should influence you in the choice of them. You 
mast work for yourself; for what you reject may 
be as important for you to have seen and thought 
about, as what you adopt ; besides, it gives you a 
command of the subject, and a comparative fear- 
lessness of surprise, which you will never have 
if you rely on other people for your materials. In 



84 ON THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 

some cases, however, you may save time by not 
laboring much, beforehand, at parts of the subject 
which are nearly sure to be worked out in discus- 
sion. 

When you have collected and arranged your 
information, there comes the task of deciding upon 
it. To make this less difficult, you must use 
method, and practise economy in thinking. You 
must not weary yourself by considering the same 
thing in the same way ; just oscillating over it, as 
it were ; seldom making much progress, and not 
marking the little that you have made. You must 
not lose your attention in reveries about the subject ; 
but must bring yourself to the point by such ques- 
tions as these: What has been done? What is the 
state of the case at present? What can be done 
next? What ought to be done? Express in writing 
the answers to your questions. Use the pen; there 
is no magic in it, but it prevents the mind from stag- 
gering about. It forces you to methodize your 
thoughts. It enables you to survey the matter with 
a less tired eye. Whereas, in thinking vaguely, you 
not only lose time, but you require a familiarity with 
the husk of the subject which is absolutely injun- 
rt'is. Your apprehension becomes dull; you estab- 



ON THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 85 

lish associations of ideas which occur again and 
again to distract your attention ; and you become 
more tired than if you had really been employed 
in mastering the subject. 

When you have arrived at your decision, you 
have to consider how you shall convey it. In do- 
ing this, be sure that you very rarely, if ever, say 
any thing which is not immediately relevant to the 
subject. Beware of indulging in maxims, in ab- 
stract propositions, or in any thing of that kind. 
Let your subject fill the whole of what you say. 
Human affairs are so wide, subtle, and complicated, 
that the most sagacious man had better content 
himself with pronouncing upon those points alone 
upon which his decision is called for. 

It will often be a nice question whether or not to 
state the motives for your decisions. Much will 
depend upon the nature of the subject, upon the 
party whom you have to address, and upon your 
power of speaking out the whole truth. When 
you can give all your motives, it will in most cases 
be just to others,' and eventually good for yourself, 
to do so. If you can only state some of them, then 
you must consider whether they are likely to mis- 
lead, or whether they tend to the full truth. For 
your own sake there is this to be considered in giv- 



86 ON THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 

mg only a part of your reasons : that those which 
you give are generally taken to be the whole, or at 
any rate, the best that you have. And, hereafter, 
you may find yourself precluded from using an 
argument which turns out to be a very sound one, 
which had great weight with you, but which you 
were at the time unwilling, or did not think it 
necessary, to put forward. 

When you have to communicate the motives for 
an unfavorable decision, you will naturally study 
how to convey them so as to give least pain, and 
to insure least discussion. These are not unwor- 
thy objects ; but they are immediate ones, and 
therefore likely to have their full weight with you. 
Beware that your anxiety to attain them does not 
carry you into an implied falsehood ; for, to say the 
least of it, evil is latent in that. Each day's con- 
verse with the world ought to confirm us in the 
maxim that a bold but not unkind sincerity should 
be the ground-work of all our dealings. 

It will often be necessary to make a general state- 
ment respecting the history of some business. It 
should be lucid, yet not overburdened with details. 
It must have method not merely running through it, 
but visible upon it ; it must have method in its form. 



ON THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 87 

You must build it up, beginning at the beginning, 
giving each part its due weight, and not hurrying 
over those steps which happen to be peculiarly fa- 
miliar to yourself. You must thoroughly enter into 
the ignorance of others, and so avoid forestalling 
your conclusions. The best teachers are those who 
can seem to forget what they know full well ; who 
work out results, which have become axioms in 
their minds, with all the interest of a beginner, and 
with footsteps no longer than his. 

It is a good practice to draw up, and put on 
record, an abstract of the reasons upon which you 
have come to a decision on any complicated sub- 
ject; so that if it is referred to, there is but little 
labor in making yourself master of it again. Of 
course this practice will be more or less necessary, 
according as your decision has been conveyed with 
a reserved or with a full statement of the reasons 
upon which it was grounded. 

Of all the correspondence you receive, a concise 
record should be kept ; which should also contain 
a note of what was done upon any letterr, and of 
where it was sent to, or put away. Documents 
relating to the same subject should be carefully 
brought together. You should endeavor to establish 



88 ON THE TRANSACTION OF BUSINESS. 

such a system of arranging your papers, as may 
insure their being readily referred to, and yet not 
require too much time and attention to be carried 
into daily practice. Fac-similes should be kept of 
all the letters which you send out. 

These seem little things ; and so they are, unless 
you neglect them. 



ON THE 



CIjow ant Management of %nfc 



The choice of agents is a difficult matter, but 
any labor that you may bestow upon it is likely to 
be well repaid ; for you have to choose persons for 
whose faults you are to be punished, to whom you 
are to be the whipping-boy. 

In the choice of an agent, it is not sufficient to 
ascertain what a man knows, or to make a cata- 
logue of his qualities; but you have to find out how 
he will perform a particular service. You may be 
right in concluding that such an office requires cer- 
tain qualities, and you may discern that such a man 
possesses most of them ; and in the absence of any 
means of making a closer trial, you may have done 
the best that you could do. But some deficiency, 
or some untoward combination of these qualities, 
may unfit him for the office. Hence the value of 



00 CHOICE AND MANAGEMENT OF AGENTS. 

any opportunity, however slight, of observing his 
conduct in matters similar to those for which you 
want him. 

Our previous knowledge of men will sometimes 
mislead us entirely, even when we apply it to cir- 
cumstances but little different, as we think, from 
those in which we have actually observed their 
behavior. For instance, you might naturally ima- 
gine that a man who shows an irritable temper in 
his 'conversation is likely to show a similar temper 
throughout the conduct of his business. But ex- 
perience does not confirm this ; for you will often 
find that men who are intemperate in speech are 
cautious in writing. 

The best agents are, in general, to be found 
amongst those persons who have a strong sense of 
responsibility. Under this feeling a man will be 
likely to grudge no pains ; he will pay attention to 
minute things ; and, what is of much importance, 
he will prefer being considered ever so stupid, 
rather than pretend to understand his orders before 
he does so. 

You should behave to your subordinate agents 
in such a manner, that they should not be afraid to 
be frank with you. They should be able to com- 



CHOICE AND MANAGEMENT OF AGENTS. 91 

ment freely upon your directions, and may thus 
become your best counsellors. For those who are 
intrusted with the execution of any work are likely 
to see things which have been overlooked by the 
person who designed it, however sagacious he 
may be. 

You must not interfere unnecessarily with your 
agents, as it gives them the habit of leaning too 
much upon you. Sir Walter Scott says of Can- 
ning, "I fear he works himself too hard, under the 
great error of trying to do too much with his own 
hand, and to see every thing with his own eyes. 
Whereas the greatest general and the first states- 
man must, in many cases, be content to use the 
eyes and fingers of others, and hold themselves 
contented with the exercise of the greatest care in 
the choice of implements." Most men of vigorous 
minds and nice perceptions will be apt to interfere 
too much. But it should always be one of the chief 
objects of a person in authority to train up those 
around him to do without him. He should try to 
give them some self-reliance. It should be his aim 
to create a standard as to the way in which things 
are to be done, not to do them all himself. That 
standard is likely to be maintained for some time, 
in case of his absence, illness, or death; and it will 



92 CHOICE AND MANAGEMENT OF AGENTS. 

be applied daily to many things that must be done 
without a careful inspection on his part, even when 
he is in full vigor. 

With respect to those agents whom you employ 
to represent you, your inclination should be to treat 
them with hearty confidence. In justice to them, 
as well as for your own sake, the limits which you 
lay down for their guidance should be precise. 
Within those limits you should allow them a large 
discretionary power. You must be careful not to 
blame your agent for departing from your orders, 
when in fact the discrepancy which you notice is 
nothing more than the usual difference in the ways 
in Vhich different men set about the same object, 
even when they employ similar means for its ac- 
complishment. For a difference of this kind you 
should have been prepared. But if you are in haste 
to blame your representative, your captiousness 
may throw a great burden upon him unnecessarily. 
It is not the success of the undertaking only that 
he will thenceforward be intent upon ; he will be 
anxious that each step should be done exactly after 
your fancy. And this may embarrass him, render 
him indecisive, and lead to his failing altogether. 

The surest way to make agents do their work is 



CHOICE AND MANAGEMENT OF AGENTS. 93 

to show them that their efforts are appreciated with 
nicety. For this purpose, you should not only be 
very careful in your promotions and rewards, but 
in your daily dealings with them, you should be- 
ware of making slight or hap-hazard criticisms on 
any of their proceedings. Your praise should 
not only be right in substance, but put upon the 
right foundation ; it should point to their most 
strenuous and most judicious exertions. I do not 
mean that it should always be given at the time of 
those exertions being made, but it should show that 
they had not passed by unnoticed. 



(On l\)t treatment of Ipplimnk 



The maxim, " Pars beneficii est, quod petitur si 
bene neges,"* is misinterpreted by many people. 
They construe " bene" kindly, which is right ; but 
they are inclined to fancy that this kindness con- 
sists in courtesy, rather than in explicitness and 
truth. 

You should be very loth to encourage expecta- 
tions in a suitor which you have not then the power 
of fulfilling, or of putting in a course of fulfilment ; 
for Hope, an architect above rules, can build, in 
reverse, a pyramid upon a point. From a very 
little origin there often arises a wildness of expecta- 
tion which quite astounds you. Like the fisherman 
in the Araoian Nights, when you see " a genie twice 
as high as the greatest of giants," you may well 
wonder how he could have come out- of so small a 

It is part of the favor, if you refuse kindly what is asked for. 



ON THE TREATMENT OF APPLICANTS. 95 

vessel ; but in your case, there will be no chance 
of persuading the monster to ensconce himself 
again, for the purpose of convincing you that such 
a feat is not impossible. 

In addition also to the natural delusions of hope, 
there is sometimes the artifice of pretending to take 
your words for more than they are well known to 
mean. 

There is a deafness peculiar to suitors ; they 
should therefore be answered as much as possible 
in writing. The answers should be expressed in 
simple terms, and all phrases should be avoided 
which are not likely to convey a clear idea to the 
man who hears them for the first time. There are 
many persons who really do not understand forms 
of writing which may have become common to you. 
When they find that courteous expressions mean 
nothing, they think that a wilful deception has been 
practised upon them. And, in general, you should 
consider that people will naturally put the largest 
construction upon every ambiguous expression, and 
every term of courtesy which can be made to ex- 
press any thing at all in their favor. 

It will often be necessary to see applicants ; and in 
this case you must bear in mind that you have not 



96 ON THE TREATMENT OF APPLICANTS. 

only the delusions of hope and the misinterpretation 
of language to contend against, but also the imper- 
fection of men's memories. If possible, therefore, do 
not let the interview be the termination of the mat- 
ter ; let it lead to something in writing, so that you 
may have an opportunity of recording what you 
wished to express. Avoid a promising manner, as 
people will be apt to find words for it. Do not 
resort to evasive answers for the purpose only of 
bringing the interview to a close ; nor shrink from 
giving a distinct denial, merely because the person 
to whom you ought to give it is before you, and 
you would have to witness any pain which it might 
occasion. Let not that balance of justice which 
Corruption could not alter one hair's breadth, be 
altogether disturbed by Sensibility. 

To determine in what cases the refusal of a suit 
should be accompanied by reasons, is a matter of 
considerable difficulty . It must depend very much 
on what portion of the truth you are able to bring 
forward. This was mentioned before as a general 
principle, in the transaction of business, and it may 
be well to abide by it in answering applications. 
You will naturally endeavor to give somewhat of a 
detailed explanation, when you are desirous of 
showing respect to the person whom you are ad 



ON THE TREATMENT OF APPLICANTS. 97 

dressing ; but if the explanation is not a sound or a 
complete one, it would be better to see whether the 
respect could not be shown in some other way. 

In many cases, and especially when the suit is 
a mere project of effrontery, it will perhaps be pru- 
dent to refuse, without entering at all upon the 
grounds of your refusal. In an explanation ad- 
dressed to the applicant, you will be apt to omit the 
special reasons for your refusal, as they are likely 
to be such as would mortify his self-love ; and so 
you lay yourself open to an accusation of unfair- 
ness, when he finds, perhaps, that you have selected 
some other person, who came as fully within the 
scope of your general objections as he did himself. 
Therefore, where you are not required, and do not 
like, to give special reasons, it may often be the best 
course simply to refuse, or to couch your refusals 
in impregnable generalities. 

Remember that, in giving any reason at all for 
refusing, you lay some foundation for a future re- 
quest. 

Those who have constantly to deal with suitors 

are in danger of giving way too much to disgust at 

the intrusion, importunity, and egotism which they 

meet with. As an antidote to this, they should re- 
5 



98 ON THE TREATMENT OF APPLICANTS. 

member that the suit whi^h is a matter of business 
to them, and which, perhaps, from its hopeless- 
ness, they look upon with little interest, seems to 
the suitor himself a thing of absorbing importance. 
And they should expect a man in distress to be as 
unreasonable as a sick person, and as much occu- 
pied by his own disorder. 



toferota<&, 



There is much that cannot be done without in» 
terviews. It would often require great labor, not 
only on your part, but also on the part of others 
whom you cannot command, to effect by means of 
writing what may easily be accomplished in a sin- 
gle interview. The pen may be a surer, but the 
tongue is a nicer instrument. In talking, most men 
sooner or later show what is uppermost in their 
minds ; and this gives a peculiar interest to verbal 
communications. Besides, there are looks, and 
tones, and gestures, which form a significant lan- 
guage of their own. In short, interviews may 
be made very useful, and are, in general, some- 
what hazardous things ; but many people look upon 
them rather as the pastime of business than as a 
part of it requiring great discretion. 

Interviews are perhaps of most value when they 



100 INTERVIEWS. 

bring together several conflicting interests or opin- 
ions, each of which has thus an opportunity of as- 
certaining the amount and variety of opposition 
which it must expect, and so is worn into modera- 
tion. It would take a great deal of writing to 
effect this. 

Interviews are to be resorted to when you wish 
to prevent the other party from pledging himself 
upon a matter which requires much explanation ; 
where you see what will probably be his answer 
to your first proposition, and know that you have a 
good rejoinder, which you would wish him to hear 
before he commits himself by writing upon the sub- 
ject. In cases of this kind, however, there is the 
similar danger of a man's talking himself into 
obstinacy before he has heard all that you have 
to say. 

Interviews are very serviceable in those matters 
where you would at once be able to come to a de- 
cision, if you did bat know the real inclination of 
the other parties concerned ; and, in general, you 
should take care occasionally to see those with 
whom you are dealing, if the thing in question is 
likely to be much influenced by their individual 
peculiarities, and you require a knowledge of the 
men. Now this is the case with the greatest part 
of human affairs. 



INTERVIEWS. 101 

You frequently want verbal communication, in 
order to encourage the timid, to settle the un- 
decided, and to bring on some definite stage in the 
proceedings. 

The above are instances in which interviews are 
to be sought for on their own account ; but they 
are sometimes necessary, merely because people 
will not be satisfied without them. There are per- 
sons who can hardly believe that their arguments 
have been attended to, until they have had verbal 
evidence of the fact. They think that they could 
easily answer all your objections, and that they 
should certainly succeed in persuading you, if they 
had an opportunity of discussing the matter orally ; 
and it may be of importance to remove this delu- 
sion by an interview. 

On the other hand, interviews are to be avoided, 
when you have reasons which determine } r our 
mind, but which you cannot give to the other 
party. If you do accede to an interview, you are 
almost certain to be tempted into giving some rea- 
sons ; and these, not being the strong ones, will very 
likely admit of a fair answer ; and so, after much 
shuffling, you will be obliged to resort to an appear- 
ance of mere wilfulness at last. 



102 INTERVIEWS. 

You should also be averse to transacting busi- 
ness verbally with very eager, sanguine persons, 
unless you feel that you have sufficient force and 
readiness for it. There are people who do not 
understand any dissent or opposition on your part, 
unless it is made very manifest. They are fully 
prepossessed by their own views, and they go on 
talking as if you agreed with them. Perhaps you 
feel a delicacy in interrupting them, and undeceiv- 
ing them at once. The time for doing so passes 
by ; and ever afterwards they quote you as an 
authority for all their folly. Or it ends by your 
going away pledged to a course of conduct which 
is any thing but what you approve. 

But perhaps there are no interviews less to be 
sought after than those in which you have to 
appear in connection with one or two other parties 
who have exactly the same interest in the matter 
as your own, and must be supposed to speak your 
sentiments, but with whom you have had little or 
no previous communication, or whose judgment 
you find that you cannot rely upon. In such a 
case you are continually in danger of being com- 
promised by the indiscretion of any one of your 
associates. For you do not like to disown one of 
your own side before the adverse party ; or you are 



INTERVIEWS. 103 

afraid of taking all the odium of opposition on your- 
self. You may perhaps be quite certain that your 
indiscreet ally would be as anxious as yourself to 
recall his words, if he could perceive their conse- 
quences ; but these are things which you cannot 
explain to him in that company. 

The men who profit least by interviews are often 
those who are most inclined to resort to them. 
They are irresolute persons, who wish to avoid 
pledging themselves to any thing, and so they 
cnoose an interview as the safest course which oc- 
curs to them. Besides, it looks like progress, and 
makes them, as they say, see their way. Such 
persons, however, are very soon entangled in their 
own words, or they are oppressed by the earnest 
opinions of the people they meet. For to conduct 
an interview in the manner which they intend, 
would require them to have at command that cour- 
age and decision which they never attain, without 
along and miserly weighing of consequences. 

Indolent persons are very apt to resort to inter- 
views : for it saves them the trouble of thinking 
steadily, and of expressing themselves with preci- 
sion, which they are called upon to do if they come 
to write about the subject. Now they certainly 



104 INTERVIEWS. 

may learn a great deal in a short time, and with 
very little trouble, by means of an interview ; but 
if they have to take up the position of an antagonist, 
of a judge, or indeed any but that of a learner, then 
it is very unsafe to indulge in an interview, with- 
out having prepared themselves for it. To con- 
duct an interview successfully, requires not only 
information and force of character, but also a cer- 
tain intellectual readiness. People are so apt to 
think that there are but two ways in which a thing 
can terminate. They are ignorant of the number of 
combinations which even a few circumstances will 
admit of. And perhaps a proposal is made which 
they are totally unprepared for, and which they 
cannot deal with, from being unable to apprehend 
with sufficient quickness its main drift and conse- 
quences. 

There are cases where the persons meeting are 
upon no terms of equality respecting the interview ; 
where one of them has a great deal to maintain, and 
the other nothing to lose. Such an instance occurs 
in the case of a minister receiving a deputation. 
He has the interests of the public to maintain, and 
the intentions of the government to keep concealed. 
He has to show that he fully understands the argu- 



INTERVIEWS. 105 

ments laid before him ; and all the while to conceal 
his own bias, and to keep himself perfectly free 
from any pledge. Any member of the deputation 
may utter any thing that he pleases, without much 
harm coming of it ; but every word that the minister 
says is liable to be interpreted against him to the 
uttermost. There are similar occasions in private life, 
where a man has to act upon the defensive, and where 
the interview may be considered not as a battle, 
but as a siege. A man should then confine himself 
to few words. He should bring forward his strong- 
est arguments only, and not state too many of them 
at a time ; for he should keep a good force in 
reserve. Besides, it will be much more difficult for 
the other party to mystify and pervert a few argu- 
ments than a set speech. And he will leave them 
no room for gaining a semblance of victory by 
answering the unimportant parts of his statement. 

Again, whatever readiness and knowledge of the 
subject he may possess, he should have somebody 
by him on his side. For he is opposed to num- 
bers, and must expect that amongst them there 
will always be some one ready to meet his argu- 
ments, if not with argument, at any rate with pro- 
per fallacies ; or at least that there will be some 
one stupid enough to commence replying without 



106 INTERVIEWS. 

an answer. He should therefore have a person 
who should be able to aid him in replying ; and 
there will be a satisfaction in having somebody in 
the room who is not in a hostile position towards 
him. Besides, he will want a witness ; for he must 
not imagine that the number of his opponents is any 
safeguard against misrepresentation, but rather a 
cause, in most people, of less attention, and less 
feeling of responsibility. And, lastly, the most 
precise man in the world, if he speaks much on 
any matter, may be glad to hear what was the im- 
pression upon another person's mind ; in short, to 
see whether he conveyed exactly what he meant 
to convey. 

The best precaution, however, which any man 
can take under these circumstances, is to state in 
Writing, at the conclusion of the interview, the sub- 
stance of what he apprehends to have been said, 
and of what he intends to do. This would require 
great readiness and the most earnest attention; but, 
in the end, it would save very much trouble and 
misapprehension. A similar practice might be 
adopted in most interviews of business where the 
subject would warrant such a formality. It would 
not only be good in itself, but its influence would 
be felt throughout the interview; and people would 



INTERVIEWS. 107 

come prepared, and would speak with precision, 
when there was an immediate prospect of their 
statements being recorded. 



<Df Conntib, Coramtaion^, 

AND, IN GENERAL, OF BODIES OF MEN CALLED TOGETHER TO 
COUNSEL, OR TO DIRECT. 



Such bodies are the fly-wheels and safety-valves 
of the machinery of business- They are sometimes 
looked upon as superfluities, but by their means 
the motion is equalized, and a great force is ap- 
plied with little danger. 

They are apt contrivances for obtaining an aver- 
age of opinions, for insuring freedom from corrup- 
tion, and the reputation of that freedom. On ordi- 
nary occasions, they are more courageous than 
most individuals. They can bear odium better. 
The world seldom looks to personal character as 
the predominating cause of any of their doings, 
though this is one of the first things which occur to 
it when the public acts of any individual are in 
question. The very indistinctness which belongs 
to their corporate existence adds a certain weight 
lo their decisions. 



OF COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS. 109 

Councils are serviceable as affording some means 
of judging how things are likely to be generally 
received. It is seldom that any one person, how- 
ever capable he may be of framing or of executing 
a good measure, can come to a satisfactory conclu- 
sion as to the various appearances which that mea- 
sure will present, or can be made to present, to 
others. In some instances he may be so little 
under the influence of the common prejudices 
around him, as not to understand their force, and 
therefore not to perceive how a new thing will be 
received. Now, if he has the opportunity of con- 
sulting several persons together, he will not only 
have the advantage of their common sense and 
joint information, but he will also have a chance of 
hearing what will be the common nonsense of or- 
dinary men upon the subject, and of providing as 
far as possible against it. 

On the other hand, these bodies are much 
tempted by the division of responsibility to sloth, 
and therefore to dealing with things superficially 
and inaccurately. Another evil is the want of that 
continuity of purpose in their proceedings which is 
to be found in those of an individual. 

As it tends directly to diminish many of the 
advantages before mentioned, it is, in general, a 



110 OF COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS. 

wrong thing for a member of a council or commis- 
sion to let the outer world know that his private 
opinion is adverse to any of the decisions of his col- 
leagues ; or indeed to indicate the part, whatever 
it may have been, that he has taken in the transac- 
tions of the general body. 

The proper number of persons to constitute such 
bodies must vary according to the purpose for 
which they are called together. Such a number 
as would afford any temptation for oratorical dis- 
play should in general be avoided. Another limit, 
which it may be prudent to adopt, is to have only 
so many members as to make it possible in most 
cases for each to take a part in the proceedings. 
By having a greater number, you will not insure 
more scrutiny into the business. It will still be 
done by a few, but with a feeling of less responsi- 
bility than if they were left to themselves, and with 
the interruptions and inconvenience arising from 
the number of persons present. Besides, the 
greater the number, the more likelihood there is of 
parties being formed in the council. 

Whether the members are many or few, there 
should be formalities, strictly maintained. This is 
essential in the conduct of business. Otherwise 
there will be such a state of things as that de- 



OF COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS. Ill 

scribed by Pepys in his account of a meeting of 
the Privy Council ; which, like most of his descrip- 
tions, one feels to be true to the life. "We to a 
committee of the Council, to discourse concerning 
pressing of men ; but Lord ! how they meet ; never 
sit down ; one comes, now another goes, then 
comes another; one complaining that nothing is 
done, another swearing that he hath been there 
these two hours and nobody come. At last my 
Lord Annesley says, ' I think we must be forced 
to get the King to come to every committee ; for I 
do not see that we do any thing at any time but 
when he is there.' " 

The great art of making use of councils, com- 
missions, and such like bodies, is to know what 
kind of matter to put before them, and in what 
state to present it. " There be three parts of busi- 
ness ; the preparation ; the debate or examination ; 
and the perfection; whereof, if you look for de- 
spatch, let the middle only be the work of many, 
and the first and last the work of few."* 

There is likely to be a great waste of time and 
labor when a thing is brought in all its first vague- 
ness to be debated or examined bv a number of 

* Bacon's Essay on Despatch. 



112 OF COUNCILS AM) COMMISSIONS. 

persons. And there will be much in the " prepara- 
tion" and " perfection" of a matter, which will only 
become confused by being submitted to a full as- 
sembly. You might as well think of making love 
by a council or a board. It should therefore be 
the business of some one, either in the council or 
subordinate to it, to bring the matter forward in a 
distinct and definite shape. Otherwise there will 
be a wilderness of things said before you arrive 
at any legitimate point of discussion. And hence 
Bacon adds, " The proceeding upon somewhat con- 
ceived in writing doth for the most part facilitate 
despatch ; for though it should be wholly rejected, 
yet that negative is more pregnant of direction 
than an indefinite, as ashes are more generative 
than dust." 

In order to bring the responsibility of any act of 
the general body home to the individuals composing 
it, no method seems so good as that of requiring 
the signatures of a large proportion of the council 
or commission to the directions given in the matter. 
Even the most careless people have a sort of aver- 
sion to signing things which they have never con- 
sidered. This plan is better than requiring the 
signatures of the whole body. For it is less likely 



OF COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS. 113 

to degenerate into a mere formality; and besides, 
the other course would give any one crotchety man 
too great a power of hindrance. 

The responsibility, also, of those persons who 
settle the details of a matter, whether secretaries 
or committees of the council, should be clearly 
attested, either by their signatures or by a memo- 
randum, showing what part of the business had 
been intrusted to them. 

As to the kind of men to be especially chosen or 
rejected, it would be trifling to lay down any mi- 
nute rules. You often require a diversity of natures, 
in order that the various modes of acting congenial 
to different minds and tempers should have an 
opportunity of being canvassed. 

When a man's faults are those which come to 
the surface in social life, they must be noted as cer- 
tain hindrances to his usefulness as a member of 
any of these bodies. A man may be proud or 
selfish, and yet a good councillor; he may be se- 
cretly ill-tempered, and yet a reasonable man in 
his converse with the world, capable of bearing- 
opposition, and an excellent coadjutor ; but if he is 
vain, or fond of disputes, or dictatorial, you know 
that his efficiency in a council must to a certain 
extent be counteracted. 



114 OF COUNCILS AND COMMISSIONS. 

Those men are the grace and strength of councils 
who are of that healthful nature which is content to 
take defeat with good-humor, and of that practical 
turn of mind which makes them set heartily to 
work upon plans and propositions which have been 
originated in opposition to their judgment ; who are 
not anxious to shift responsibility upon others ; and 
who do not allude to their former objections with 
triumph, when those objections come to be borne 
out by the result. In acting with such persons, you 
are at your ease. You counsel sincerely and boldly, 
and not with a timorous regard to your own part 
in the matter. 

The men who have method, and, as it were, a 
judicial intellect, are most valuable councillors. 
Without some such in a council, a great deal ot 
cleverness goes for nothing ; as there is nobody to 
see what has been stated and answered, to what 
their deliberations tend, and what progress has been 
made. Such persons can gather the sense of a 
mixed assembly, and suggest some line of action 
which may honestly meet the different views of the 
various members. They will bring back the sub 
ject-matter when it has all but floated away, while 
the others have been looking for sea- weed, or throw 
ing stones at one another on the shore. 



^artt} Ifirit 



Party Spirit gives a pretext for the exercise of 
such scorn and malice as could not be tolerated, 
if they did not claim to have their origin in fervent 
wishes for the public welfare. It consumes in idle 
contests that energy which the State has need of. 
By the perpetual interchange of hard names, it tends 
to make a people suspicious and uncharitable ; or 
it inclines them to think lightly of the kind of of- 
fences which they hear so often charged against their 
most eminent public men; or it "gives them a 
habit of using epithets and affecting sensations of 
moral indignation which bear no proportion to the 
thing itself, or to their own real feelings about the 
thing ; of taking the names of Truth and Virtue in 
vain." 

Under the influence of party spirit, a nation some- 
times acts towards its dependencies, and in its for- 



116 PARTY SPIRIT. 

eign relations, not with the whole force of the coun- 
try, but with a portion of it only, bearing some ref- 
erence to the excess of strength in the ruling party. 

Party spirit makes people abjure independent 
thinking. It can leave nothing alone. It must 
uplift a hand in every man's quarrel, as a knight- 
errant of old, but with small sense of chivalry. It 
forces its odious friendship or its unprovoked hos- 
tility where neither is fitting. Even the wisest 
require to be constantly on their guard against it ; 
or its insidious prejudices, like dirt and insects on 
the glasses of a telescope, will blur the view, and 
make them see strange monsters where there are 
none. 

Party spirit incites people to attack with rash- 
ness, and to defend without sincerity. Violent 
partisans are apt to treat a political opponent in 
such a manner, when they argue with him, as to 
make the question quite personal, as if he had been 
present, as it were, and a chief agent in all the 
crimes which they attribute to his party. Nor does 
the accused hesitate to take the matter upon him- 
self, and, in fancied self-defence, to justify things 
which otherwise he would not hesitate, for one 
moment, to condemn. 

These evils must not be allowed to take shelter 



PARTY SPIRIT. 117 

under the unfounded supposition that party deal- 
ings are different from any thing else in the world, 
and that they are to be governed by much looser 
laws than those which regulate any other human 
affairs. It is a very dangerous thing to acknow- 
ledge two sorts of truth, two kinds of charity. 

Is there no harm in never looking farther than 
the worst motive that can possibly be imagined for 
the actions of our political adversaries ? Are we 
to consider the opposite party as so many Samari- 
tans ; and is there nothing that we have ever heard 
or read, which should induce us to abate our Jew- 
ish antipathy to these brethren of ours, who do not 
worship at our temple ? This is an illustration 
from which political bigots cannot escape. Even 
their own pretensions of being always in the right 
will only bring the instance more home to them. 
The Jews were right about the matter in dispute 
between them and the Samaritans. " Salvation is 
with the Jews." But this is never held out to us 
as any justification of their behavior. 

To hear some men talk, one would suppose that 
political distinctions were natural distinctions ; and 
that they depended upon a man's personal qual- 
ities. These people seem to think that all tiie good 



118 PARTY SPIRIT. 

are ranged in a row on one side, and all the bad 
on the other. Now the utmost that can reason- 
ably be alleged is, that there exists in most men 
a predisposition to one or other of the two great 
parties which are to be found in every free coun- 
try ; but this cannot be depended upon as the cause 
which determines men in general to attach them- 
selves to a party. 

As it is, some range themselves on one side, and 
some on the other, just as they used to do in their 
school games, and with about as much reflection. 
A large number of persons in all ranks hold hered- 
itary opinions. There are thousands who make 
their convictions on all political subjects subservi- 
ent to their feelings as members of a class, and to 
what they believe to be the interests of that class. 
Then there are those who think whatever the little 
mob in which they live pleases to think ; and this is 
the most comfortable way of thinking. Direct self 
interest decides some men. The merest accidents 
determine others. For instance, how much of a 
man's opinions through life will depend upon any 
strong-minded or earnest person that he may have 
lived with at a time when he was uninformed him- 
self and malleable. Remember, too, that it requires 
but a slight bias to send a man into a party ; for 



PARTY SPIRIT. 119 

let him agree with it only in a few points, and he 
will be set down as belonging to it. Then, per- 
haps, he is called upon to act in some way or other 
politically, and a very little determines a man 
whose thoughts upon the subject altogether have 
been few and vague. Thus a political character is 
impressed upon him without his having had much 
to do in the matter ; but, afterwards, many things 
will probably occur to deepen that impression, and 
to make him a decided partisan. 

A true analysis of the composition of parties 
would afford a good lesson of political tolerance. 
We should learn from it what a mixed thing a party 
is ; that there is no single law that will explain its 
cohesion ; and still less is there any good ground 
for insisting that the distinctions of party have 
their origin in moral worth or turpitude. 

It is of importance that we should train ourselves 
to make the fitting allowance for the political pre- 
judices of others. 

Pascal asks, " Whence comes it to pass that we 
have so much patience with those who are maimed 
in body, and so little with those who are defective 
in mind ?" And he says, " It is because the crip- 
ple acknowledges that we have the use of our legs ; 
whereas the fool obstinately maintains that we are 



£20 PARTY SPIRIT. 

the persons who halt in understanding. Without 
this difference in the case, neither object would 
move our resentment, but both our compassion." 
We might try to overlook this difference, and find 
it an aid to charity to consider that men's preju- 
dices are the same kind of things as their personal 
defects. Whether a man is laboring under some 
degree of physical deafness ; or under some strong 
prejudice, which, being ever by his side, is always 
sure of the first hearing, and produces a sort of 
numbness to any thing else ; it comes nearly to the 
same thing, as regards the weight which he is likely 
to attach to any of our arguments, when adverse 
to his prejudice. In both cases the cause is de- 
cided without our being fully heard. 

But at the same time that we have recourse to 
such views as the above, to moderate our impa- 
tience of other people's prejudices, we should keep 
a vigilant watch on our own. We often forget that 
we are partisans ourselves, and that we are con- 
tending with partisans. We first give ourselves 
credit for a judicial impartiality in all that concerns 
public affairs ; and then call upon our opponents 
actually to be as impartial as we assert ourselves 
to be. Bat few of us, I suspect, have any right to 
take this high ground. Our passions master us ; 



PARTY SPIRIT. 121 

and we know them to be our enemies. Our preju- 
dices imprison us ; and, like madmen, we take our 
jailors for a guard of honor. 

I do not mean to suggest that truth and right are 
always to be found in middle courses ; or that 
there is any thing particularly philosophic in con- 
cluding that "both parties are in the wrong," and 
" that there is a great deal to be said on both sides 
of the question," phrases which may belong to in- 
dolence as well as to charity and candor. Let a 
man have a hearty, strong opinion, and strive by all 
fair means to bring it into action — if it is, in truth, 
an opinion, and not a thing inhaled like some in- 
fectious disorder. 

Many persons persuade themselves that the life 
and well-being of a State are something like their 
own fleeting health and brief prosperity. And 
hence they see portentous things in every subject 
of political dispute. Such fancies add much to the 
intolerance of party spirit. But the State will beai 
much killing. It has outlived many generations of 
political prophets, and it may survive the present 
ones. 

Divisions in a State are a necessary consequence 



122 PARTY SPIRIT. 

of freedom ; and the practical question is not to 
dispense with party, but to make the most good of 
it. The contest must exist ; but it may have some- 
thing of generosity in it. And how is this to be ? 
Not by the better kind of men abstaining from any 
attention to politics, or shunning party connections 
altogether. Staying away from a danger which in 
many instances it is their duty to face, would be 
but a poor way of keeping themselves safe. It 
would be a doubtful policy to encourage political 
indifference as a cure for the evils of party spirit } 
even if it were a certain cure ; but we cannot take 
this for granted, especially when we observe that 
the vices of party are not always to be seen most 
in those who have the most earnest political feel- 
ings. Indeed, the attachment to a party may be 
and often is, an affection of the most generous kind ; 
and it must, I think, be allowed that even with 
men who do not discern the true end of party, noi 
its limits, party spirit is often a rude kind of pa- 
triotism. 

The question then is, how to regulate party 
spirit. Like all other affections, its tendency is to 
overspread the whole character. One who has noth- 
ing in his soul to resist it, or much that assimilates 
with its worst influences, is carried away by it to evil 



PARTY SPIRIT. 123 

But a good man will show the earnestness of his 
attachment to his party by his endeavor to elevate 
its character ; and in the utmost heat of party con- 
tests, he will try to maintain a love of truth, and a 
regard for the charities of life. 



<Dn €m\\f.< 



Truth is a subject which men will not suffer to 
grow old. Each age has to fight with its own false- 
hoods ; each man with his love of saying to himself 
and those around him pleasant things and things 
serviceable for to-day, rather than the things which 
are. Yet a child appreciates at once the divine 
necessity for truth; never asks, "What harm is 
there in saying the thing that is not ?" and an old 
man finds in his growing experience wider and 
wider applications of the great doctrine and disci- 
pline of truth. 

Truth needs the wisdom of the serpent as well 
as the simplicity of the clove. He has gone but a 
little way in this matter who supposes that it is 



* This Essay is taken from " Friends in Council, a Series of Readings 
and Discourse thereon," by the author of the preceding Essays, re- 
printed in this country by James Munroe & Co., of Boston. 



ON TRUTH. 125 

an easy thing for a man to speak the truth, " the 
thing he troweth ;" and that it is a casual function, 
which may be fulfilled at once, after any lapse of 
exercise. But, in the first place, the man who 
would speak truth must know what he troweth. 
To do that he must have an uncorrupted judgment. 
By this is not meant a perfect judgment, or even a 
wise one, but one which, however it may be 
biased, is not bought — is still a judgment. But 
some people's judgments are so entirely gained over 
by vanity, selfishness, passion, or inflated preju- 
dices and fancies long indulged in ; or they have the 
habit of looking at every thing so carelessly, that 
they see nothing truly. They cannot interpret the 
world of reality. And this is the saddest form of 
lying, " the lie that sinketh in," as Bacon says, 
which becomes part of the character, and goes on 
eating the rest away. 

Again, to speak truth, a man must not only have 
that martial courage which goes out, with sound of 
drum and trumpet, to do and suffer great things ; 
but that domestic courage which compels him to 
utter small-sounding truths, in spite of present in 
convenience and outraged sensitiveness or sensibil- 
ity. Then he must not be in any respect a slave 
to self-interest. Often it seems as if but a little 



126 ON TRUTH, 

misrepresentation would gain a great good for us ; 
or, perhaps, we have only to conceal some trifling 
thing, which, if told, might hinder unreasonably, 
as we think, a profitable bargain. The true man 
takes care to tell, notwithstanding. When we think 
that truth interferes at one time or another with all 
a man's likings, hatings and wishes, we must admit, 
I think, that it is the most comprehensive and 
varied form of self-denial. 

Then, in addition to these great qualities, truth- 
telling in its highest sense requires a well-balanced 
mind. For instance, much exaggeration, perhaps 
the most, is occasioned by an impatient and easily- 
moved temperament, which longs to convey its own 
vivid impressions to other minds, and seeks by am- 
plifying to gain the full measure of their sympathy. 
But a true man does not think what his hearers 
are feeling, but what he is saying. 

More stress might be laid than has been on the 
intellectual requisites for truth, which are probably 
the best part of intellectual cultivation, and as 
much caused by truth as causing it. But, putting 
the requisites for truth at the fewest, see of how 
large a portion of the character truth is the result- 
ant. If you were to make a list of those persons 
accounted the religious men of their respective 



ON TRUTH. 127 

ages, you would have a ludicrous combination of 
characters essentially dissimilar. But true people 
are kindred. Mention the eminently true men, and 
you will find that they are a brotherhood. There 
is a family likeness throughout them. 

If we consider the occasions of exercising truth- 
fulness, and descend to particulars, we may divide 
the matter into the following heads : truth to one's 
self; truth to mankind in general; truth in social 
relations ; truth in business ; truth in pleasure. 

1. Truth to one's self. All men have a deep 
interest that each man should tell himself the truth. 
Not only will he become a better man, but he will 
understand them better. If men knew themselves, 
ihey could not be intolerant to others. 

It is scarcely necessary to say much about the 
advantage of a man knowing himself for himself. 
To get at the truth of any history is good ; but a 
man's own history — when he reads that truly, and, 
without a mean and over-solicitous introspection, 
knows what he is about and what he has been 
about, it is a Bible to him. "And David said unto 
Nathan, I have sinned before the Lord." David 
knew the truth about himself. But truth to one's 
self is not merely truth about one's self. It consists 



128 ON TRUTH. 

in maintaining an openness and justness of soul 
which brings a man into relation with all truth 
For this, all the senses, if you might so call them, 
of the soul must be uninjured ; that is, the affec- 
tions and the perceptions must be just. For a man 
to speak the truth to himself, comprehends all good- 
ness, and for us mortals can only be an aim. 

2. Truth to mankind in general. This is a mat- 
ter which, as I read it, concerns only the higher 
natures. Suffice it to say, that the withholding 
large truths from the world may be a betrayal of 

the greatest trust. 

3. Truth in social relations. Under this head 
come the practices of making speech vary accord- 
ing to the person spoken to ; of pretending to agree 
with the world when you do not ; of not acting ac- 
cording to what is your deliberate and well-advised 
opinion, because some mischief may be made of it 
by persons whose judgment in the matter you do 
not respect ; of maintaining a wrong course for the 
sake of consistency ; of encouraging the show of 
intimacy with those whom you never can be inti- 
mate with ; and many things of the same kind. 
These practices have elements of charity and pru- 



ON TRUTH. 129 

dence as well as fear and meanness in them. Let 
those parts which correspond to fear and meanness 
be put aside. Charity and prudence are not para- 
sitical plants, which require boles of falsehood to 
climb up upon. It is often extremely difficult in 
the mixed things of this world to act truly and 
kindly too ; but therein lies one of the great trials 
of a man, that his sincerity should have kindness in 
it, and his kindness truth. 

4. Truth in business. The more truth you can 
get into any business, the better. Let the other 
side know the defects of yours, let them know how 
you are to be satisfied, let there be as little to be 
found out as possible, (I should say nothing;) and 
if your business be an honest one, it will be best 
tended in this way. The talking, bargaining and 
delaying that would thus be needless, the little 
that would then have to be done over again, the 
anxiety that would be put aside, would even in a 
worldly way be " great gain." It is not, perhaps, 
too much to say, that the third part of men's lives 
is wasted by the effect, direct or indirect, of false- 
hoods. 

Still, let us not be swift to imagine that lies are 
never of any service. A recent prime minister said, 



130 ON TRUTH. 

that he did not know about truth always prevailing 
and the like ; but lies had been very successful 
against his government. And this was true enough. 
Every lie has its day. There is no preternatural 
inefficacy in it by reason of its falseness. And 
this is especially the case with those vague inju- 
rious reports which are no man's lies, but all men's 
carelessness. But even as regards special and 
unmistakable falsehood, we must admit that it has 
its success. A complete being might deceive with 
wonderful effect; however, as nature is always 
against a liar, it is great odds in the case of ordi- 
nary mortals. Wolsey talks of 

" Negligence 
« Fit for a fool to fall by," 

when he gives Henry the wrong packet ; but the 
Cardinal was quite mistaken. That kind of negli- 
gence was just the thing of which far-seeing and 
thoughtful men are capable; and which, if there 
were no higher motive, should induce them to rely 
on truth alone. A very close vulpine nature, all 
eyes, all ears, may succeed better in deceit. But it 
is a sleepless business. Yet, strange to say, it is 
had recourse to in the most spendthrift fashion, as 
the first and earliest thing that comes to hand. 
In connection with truth in business, it may be 



ON TRUTH. 131 

observed, that if you are a truthful man, you should 
be watchful over those whom you employ ; for your 
subordinate agents are- often fond of lying for your 
interests, as they think. Show them at once that 
you do not think with them, and that you will dis- 
concert any of their inventions by breaking in with 
the truth. If you suffer the fear of seeming unkind 
to prevent your thrusting well-meant inventions 
aside, you may get as much pledged to falsehoods 
as if you had coined and uttered them yourself. 

5. Truth in pleasure. Men have been said to be 
sincere in their pleasures ; but this is only that the 
tastes and habits of men are more easily discerni- 
ble in pleasure than business. The want of truth 
is as great a hindrance to the one as to the other. 
Indeed, there is so much insincerity and formality 
in the pleasurable department of human life, espe- 
cially in social pleasures, that instead of a bloom 
there is a slime upon it, which deadens and cor- 
rupts the thing. One of the most comical sights to 
superior -beings must be to see two human creatures, 
with elaborate speech and gestures, making each 
other exquisitely uncomfortable from civility ; the 
one pressing what he is most anxious that the other 
should not accept, and the other accepting only 



132 ON TRUTH. 

from the fear of giving offense by refusal. There 
is an element of charity in all this too ; and it will 
be the business of a just and refined nature to be 
sincere and considerate at the same time. This 
will be better done by enlarging our sympathy, so 
that more things and people are pleasant to us, than 
by increasing the civil and conventional part of our 
nature, so that we are able to do more seeming 
with greater skill and endurance. Of other false 
hindrances to pleasure, such as ostentation and pre- 
tenses of all kinds, there is neither charity nor com- 
fort in them. They may be got rid of altogether, 
and no moaning made over them. Truth, which is 
one of the largest creatures, opens out the way to 
the heights of enjoyment as well as to the depths 
of self-denial. 

It is difficult to think too highly of the merits and 
delights of truth ; but there is often in men's minds 
an exaggerated notion of some bit of truth, which 
proves a great assistance to falsehood. For in- 
stance, the shame of some particular small 'false- 
hood, exaggeration, or sincerity becomes a bug- 
bear which scares a man into a career of false deal- 
ing. He has begun making a furrow a little out of 
the line, and he ploughs on in it, to try and give 



ON TRUTH. 133 

some consistency and meaning to it. He wants 
almost to persuade himself that it was not wrong, 
and entirely to hide the wrongness from others. 
This is a tribute to the majesty of truth ; also to 
the world's opinion about truth. It proceeds, too, 
upon the notion that all falsehoods are equal, which 
is not the case ; or on some fond craving for a show 
of perfection, which is sometimes very inimical to 
the reality. The practical as well as the high- 
minded view in such cases, is for a man to think 
how he can be true now. To attain that, it may, 
even for this world, be worth while for a man to 
admit that he is inconsistent, and even that he has 
been untrue. His hearers, did they know any thing 
of themselves, would be fully aware that he was 
not singular, except in the courage of owning his 
insincerity. 



Au£ ■ ' 



W56 , 







<5> * o » . * ■?, 






vV** 



; Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 



aV ^ V* Treatment Date: April 2009 



%/+??. *s A ** PreservationTechnologie 

C °JLH • C> 4^ . • C ' B + ^ A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATIQ 

• *X^\Vv.w* . O *T^ ±**>/y?7^+ V* 1 1 1 Thnmcnn Park Drive 




K^ 



111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 







** v \ 



V* .'«£ \/ A"- %/ " 

» • 













S ■ 


to*? 


i£^ 






f0 "^ ^€RT I 


II 


• ** 


| BOOKBINDING 






I c 












I ^ J^ti^'^' 


1 


0* 


.»^^il\\V\N>v k 




<3fr 








*b ^ ■'* 









m 









mm 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




I 



H 

ma 

H 

■ 

HHn 

— 



UBS 




